Innate immune responses to infection with the Lyme disease pathogen in diet-induced obesity
Year: 2015
Type: dissertation
Abstract: This thesis reports the effects of high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity (DIO) on infection the Lyme disease pathogen Borreali burgdorferi. Male and female mice were fed a HFD or normal diet (ND) and infected with B. burgdorferi. Bacterial burden, pathology, systemic leukocyte and cytokine responses, basal and Borrelia-elicited macrophage cytokine production, and neutrophil and macrophage and leukocyte bacterial uptake assays were performed. DIO was associated with increased bacterial DNA burden and Lyme carditis pathology, which were associated with attenuated Borrelia uptake and cytokine production by neutrophils and macrophages in infected mice. DIO-dependent increases in burden were most pronounced in TLR4-expressing mice and females. Unexpectedly, Borrelia infection alone caused weight gain in ND mice at a rate similar to HFD. Together, these results suggested that obesity may be a risk factor for and affect outcomes of Lyme disease in humans.
Source: TSpace (University of Toronto)
Author: Nataliya Zlotnikov
Language: English
Subfield: Parasitology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2340646671