Immune cells use hunger hormones to aid healing

Dixit, Vishwa Deep

doi:10.1038/d41586-022-02105-z

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10 August 2022

Immune cells use hunger hormones to aid healing

Immune cells called monocytes have long been implicated in the killing of invading bacteria. However, a closer look reveals a surprising role for them: monocytes partner with a hormone to improve skin healing after bacterial infection.

Vishwa Deep Dixit⁰

Vishwa Deep Dixit
1. Vishwa Deep Dixit is in the Departments of Pathology, Comparative Medicine and Immunobiology, and at the Yale Center for Research on Aging, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut 06520, USA.
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Production of the hormone ghrelin from stomach cells stimulates hunger¹, whereas the hormone leptin, which is released from fat cells called adipocytes, acts on the hypothalamus in the brain to inhibit food intake². A loss of appetite is the most common symptom associated with the fever and inflammation that are induced by infection³. To coordinate a successful response to infection and to ultimately restore normal function, the body’s immune, metabolic and nervous systems need to communicate by means of receptors, signalling molecules called cytokines, and hormones⁴. What are the specific restorative signals that dictate tissue healing and repair after infection? Writing in Nature, Kratofil et al.⁵ report a previously unsuspected connection between hormones and immune cells during healing.

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Nature 609, 39-40 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02105-z

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