Caloric restriction is a universally efficient method for increasing healthy lifespan and enhancing metabolic function. In Cell Metabolism, Trajkovski and colleagues investigate the mechanism by which caloric restriction improves metabolic parameters in both normal mice and obesity-prone mice. They find that caloric restriction promotes the browning of white adipose tissue (WAT) and improves thermogenesis. Browning is known to be associated with type 2 immunity and especially the presence of M2 macrophages, group 2 innate lymphoid cells and eosinophils and, accordingly, they find that caloric restriction increases the abundance of all these cell types in WAT. The beneficial effects of caloric restriction on metabolic parameters are dependent on type 2 signalling, specifically pathways dependent on either the signal transducer STAT6 or the cytokine receptor IL-4Rα. These data link the beneficial effects of caloric restriction with the immunological pathways known to influence the browning of WAT.
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Fehervari, Z. Caloric restriction and type 2 immunity. Nat Immunol 17, 1243 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3593
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ni.3593
