Immunometabolism is a relatively new field, first cited on PubMed in 2011. It is also a field that is increasingly ‘en vogue’, with over 200 PubMed citations so far in 2018. Since its beginning, the field of immunometabolism has been operating on two different planes: one set of investigators works at the organismal level, studying interactions between the immune and metabolic systems; a second set operates at the cellular level, examining metabolic aspects of immunocytes. The focus here is on organismal immunometabolism. One topic related to the control of metabolism by the immune system and, conversely, one concerning metabolic control of the immune system will be highlighted.
Key advances
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Vascular adipose tissue (VAT) hosts a population of γδ T cells that promotes regulatory T (Treg) cell accumulation therein.
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The unique phenotype of VAT Treg cells is set in stages, the last stage being within VAT.
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Obesity can promote tumorigenesis by reprogramming the metabolism and dampening the effector functions of natural killer cells.
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Obesity can also promote tumorigenesis by inducing PD-1 expression on T cells, thereby rendering the tumour more susceptible to inhibition by checkpoint blockade.
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Acknowledgements
D.M. is supported by the JPB Foundation and by the NIH (DK092541).
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Mathis, D. Organismal immunometabolism: advances in both directions. Nat Rev Immunol 19, 83–84 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-018-0118-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-018-0118-z
