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Autoimmunity

Rubbing salt in the wound

Nature volume 496, pages 437–439 (2013)Cite this article

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The ability of sodium chloride to induce enzymatic activity that leads to the generation of pathogenic TH17 immune cells implicates salt as a possible factor that might exacerbate autoimmune disease. See Letters p.513 & p.518

The role of the immune system is to protect our bodies from viral, bacterial, fungal and parasitic infections. But, sophisticated as this system is, it can go awry. One consequence is autoimmunity, a diverse collection of disorders in which the immune system turns against the host. Genetics and gender undoubtedly play key parts in the susceptibility to autoimmune diseases, but environmental factors are also important. In this issue, Kleinewietfeld et al.1 (page 518) and Wu et al.2 (page 513) provide provocative data implicating a novel component in this mix: saltFootnote 1.

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Figure 1: SGK1 and the differentiation of TH17 cells.

Notes

  1. *This article and the papers under discussion1,2 were published online on 6 March 2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. John J. O'Shea is in the Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, Bethesda, Maryland 20892-1616, USA.,

    John J. O'Shea

  2. Department of Physiology, Russell G. Jones is at the Rosalind and Morris Goodman Cancer Research Centre, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3G 1Y6, Canada.,

    Russell G. Jones

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  1. John J. O'Shea
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  2. Russell G. Jones
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Correspondence to John J. O'Shea or Russell G. Jones.

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O'Shea, J., Jones, R. Rubbing salt in the wound. Nature 496, 437–439 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11959

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