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Salt sensitivity includes effects on immune cell signalling and metabolism

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 23, pages 341–342 (2023)Cite this article

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Excess salt (sodium chloride) intake is a risk factor for hypertension and is attributed to increasing rates of morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Salt sensitivity is classically defined as the blood pressure response to dietary salt changes. However, in addition to the pivotal role of sodium (Na+) in regulating the osmotic composition of body fluids, we recently reported that Na+ regulates the energy metabolism of immune cells. Thus, we suggest broadening the definition of salt sensitivity to include these effects on cellular immunometabolism.

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Fig. 1: Intracellular sodium disbalance contributes to modification of inflammatory outputs.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association, Berlin, Germany

    Dominik N. Müller & Sabrina Geisberger

  2. Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Dominik N. Müller

  3. DZHK (German Centre for Cardiovascular Research), Berlin, Germany

    Dominik N. Müller

  4. VIB Laboratory of Translational Immunomodulation, VIB Center for Inflammation Research (IRC), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Markus Kleinewietfeld

  5. Department of Immunology, Biomedical Research Institute, Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Markus Kleinewietfeld

  6. University Multiple Sclerosis Center (UMSC), Hasselt University, Diepenbeek, Belgium

    Markus Kleinewietfeld

  7. Institute of Clinical Microbiology and Hygiene, University Hospital Regensburg and University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany

    Jonathan Jantsch

  8. Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology, and Hygiene, and Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne (CMMC), University Hospital Cologne and Faculty of Medicine, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Jonathan Jantsch

Authors
  1. Dominik N. Müller
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  2. Sabrina Geisberger
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  3. Markus Kleinewietfeld
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  4. Jonathan Jantsch
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Contributions

The authors contributed equally to all aspects of the article.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Dominik N. Müller, Markus Kleinewietfeld or Jonathan Jantsch.

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Competing interests

M.K. is listed as inventor on a pending patent related to mitochondrial metabolism and immunomodulation. All other authors declare no competing interests.

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Peer review information

Nature Reviews Immunology thanks D. Hafler, A. Martínez-Ruiz and H. Wiig for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Müller, D.N., Geisberger, S., Kleinewietfeld, M. et al. Salt sensitivity includes effects on immune cell signalling and metabolism. Nat Rev Immunol 23, 341–342 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00881-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00881-x

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