Highlights
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- The impact of maternal and early-life nutrition on immune development.
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- Effects of diet and its components on the immune response.
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- Malnutrition and obesity differently influence immune cell function: the leptin example.
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- Intestinal microbiota as modulators of the immune system.
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- Epigenetically active nutrients: effects on the immune response.
Abstract
The
immune system is a highly integrated network of cells sensitive to a
number of environmental factors. Interestingly, recent years have seen a
dramatic increase in our understanding of how diet makes a crucial
contribution to human health, affecting the immune system, secretion of
adipocytokines and metabolic pathways. Recent experimental evidence
indicates that diet and its components are able to profoundly influence
immune responses, thus affecting the development of inflammatory and
autoimmune diseases. This review aims to discuss some of the main topics
concerning the impact of nutrients and their relative composition on
immune cell development and function that may be particularly important
for regulating the balance between inflammatory and tolerogenic
processes. We also highlight the effects of diet on commensal bacteria
and how changes in the composition of the microbiota alter intestinal
and systemic immune homeostasis. Finally, we summarize the effects of
dietary compounds on epigenetic mechanisms involved in the regulation of
several immune related genes.
Keywords
- Nutrition;
- Dietary components;
- Immune function;
- Obesity;
- Gut microbiota;
- Nutriepigenomics
Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
