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.

Trivia and Amazing Facts

Seasonal flu vaccine supplies spur worries

WASHINGTON - A shortage of seasonal flu vaccine has the po- tential to cause big problems for the United States' elderly population, caregivers say. Janice Zalen, director of special programs for the American Health Care Association, which represents 11,000 nursing homes and assisted living facili- ties, said the seasonal flu vaccine shortage is "a very big problem," The New York Times reported Tuesday. Zalen told the newspaper that of 1,000 nursing home managers she contacted in a survey, 800 reported they could not get enough vaccine.
The Times noted of the 36,000 Americans who die of seasonal flu in the average year, more than 90 percent are 65 or older, with some of the deadliest outbreaks coming in nursing homes. U.S. health officials reportedly are trying to shift supplies of the flu vaccine to counter the shortages. Dr. - Carol Friedman, head of adult immunization at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said worries about swine flue and vaccine production problems have caused the situation.
The newspaper said some 118 million doses of vaccine were planned, but production problems caused GlaxoSmithKline to cut its run by half and Novartis shrank its output 10 percent.

Animated Signatures - Animated Names