Study links metabolic and immune diseases
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Researchers in Cambridge, Mass., found a link between metabolic and immunologic conditions, they said in papers published Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine.
They used two over-the-counter allergy medications to reduce both obesity and type 2 diabetes in mice. The papers ex- plained the medications stabilize a population of inflam- matory immune cells called mast cells. The researchers also found a white blood cell called a regulatory T cell controls inflammation in fat tissues. Obese people and people with type 2 diabetes have too few of these cells, the papers said.
"It seems that we're seeing the emergence of a new biomedical discipline: immunometabolism," said Harvard Medical School Professor of pathology Diane Mathis, senior author on one of the papers. Scientists know type 1 diabetes is an immunolog- ical disease but didn't consider type 2 to be immunological until this study, the Harvard scientists said.
They used two over-the-counter allergy medications to reduce both obesity and type 2 diabetes in mice. The papers ex- plained the medications stabilize a population of inflam- matory immune cells called mast cells. The researchers also found a white blood cell called a regulatory T cell controls inflammation in fat tissues. Obese people and people with type 2 diabetes have too few of these cells, the papers said.
"It seems that we're seeing the emergence of a new biomedical discipline: immunometabolism," said Harvard Medical School Professor of pathology Diane Mathis, senior author on one of the papers. Scientists know type 1 diabetes is an immunolog- ical disease but didn't consider type 2 to be immunological until this study, the Harvard scientists said.
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