IL-1beta tagged posts

Postprandial macrophage-derived IL-1β stimulates insulin and both synergistically promote glucose disposal and inflammation. Nature Immunology, January 2017 DOI: 10.1038/ni.3659

When we eat, we do not just take in nutrients – we also consume a significant quantity of bacteria. The body is faced with the challenge of simultaneously distributing the ingested glucose and fighting these bacteria. This triggers an inflammatory response that activates the immune systems of healthy individuals and has a protective effect, as doctors from the University and the University Hospital Basel have proven for the first time. In overweight individuals, however, this inflammatory response fails so dramatically that it can lead to diabetes.

It is well known that type 2 diabetes (or adult-onset diabetes) le...

Immune molecule IL-1beta (the “hot spots” shown here) senses bacterial infections. Credit: UC San Diego Health

Patient data reveals crucial role IL-1beta in sensing streptococcal infections. Rheumatoid arthritis patients taking medications that inhibit interleukin-1beta, a molecule that stimulates the immune system, are 300 times more likely to experience invasive Group A Streptococcal infections than patients not on the drug, according to University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers. Their study also uncovers a critical new role for IL-1beta as the body’s independent early warning system for bacterial infections.

“The more we know about each step in the body’s immune response to bacterial infections, the better equipped we are to design more personalized, targeted the...

A mouse’s fat cells (red) are shown surrounded by a network of blood vessels (green). Source: Daniela Malide, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health

UC SF scientists have found a surprising new avenue for potential therapies to reduce risk of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders associated with chronic tissue inflammation in obesity. Inflammation in obesity may be caused, at least in part, by a completely different mechanism from the one that controls normal immune responses. The research shows saturated fats “short-circuit” both mouse and human immune cells, producing an inappropriate inflammatory response as a consequence...