Special Issue Published in The Journal of Nutrition
Diet plays a critical role in regulating immunity in health and disease across the lifespan. In particular, recent discoveries from basic mechanistic research, epidemiological analyses, behavioral studies, and clinical trials provide increasing evidence that specific dietary patterns and nutrients program innate and adaptive immunity. Thus, diet is a major modifiable target for intervention to improve immunological responses.
Research has shown that maternal diet begins programming an infant’s immune system in utero. Human breast milk is also of great importance in the development of the infant’s immune system as well as other early dietary factors such as exposure to choline and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
Next, in adulthood and midlife, there is a long window in which chronic exposure to poor nutrition, obesogenic factors, and gut dysbiosis may tip the scales toward elevated inflammation and immune dysfunction. Finally, in later life specific micronutrients such as vitamins and selenium may help delay or reverse the effects of aging on immune function and inflammation. In particular, this may have implications for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, as its etiology appears to have an inflammatory component.
In order to synthesize our current understanding and support further research, The Journal of Nutrition invited submissions of high-quality original research manuscripts, reviews, perspectives, and systematic reviews with meta-analyses that focused on the broad area of nutritional immunology. This Special Issue, Nutritional Immunology across the lifespan, is now complete, consisting of 15 articles:
Guest Editors:
- Saame Raza Shaikh, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
- Jimmy W. Crott, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine
- Sarah S. Comstock, Michigan State University
- Laxmi Yeruva, Microbiome and Metabolism Research Unit, USDA-ARS, Arkansas Children’s Nutrition Center
Articles:
- Nutritional Immunology across the Lifespan: A Call for Papers
- Prune Consumption Attenuates Proinflammatory Cytokine Secretion and Alters Monocyte Activation in Postmenopausal Women: Secondary Outcome Analysis of a 12-Month Randomized Controlled Trial: The Prune Study
- Postprandial Triglyceride-Rich Lipoproteins-Induced Lysosomal Dysfunction and Impaired Autophagic Flux Contribute to Inflammation in White Adipocytes
- Zinc Deficiency and sTNF-RII Are Associated with Worse COVID-19 Outcomes
- Effects of Dietary Glutamine Supplementation on the Modulation of Microbiota and Th17/Treg Immune Response Signaling Pathway in Piglets after Lipopolysaccharide Challenge
- Docosahexaenoic Acid Controls Pulmonary Macrophage Lipid Raft Size and Inflammation
- Plant- and Animal-Derived Dietary Sources of Phosphatidylcholine Have Differential Effects on Immune Function in the Context of a High-Fat Diet in Male Wistar Rats
- Metformin as a Therapeutic Agent for Obesity-Associated Immune Dysfunction
- Aging Modulates the Effect of Dietary Glycemic Index on Gut Microbiota Composition in Mice
- How Membrane Phospholipids Containing Long-Chain Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Their Oxidation Products Orchestrate Lipid Raft Dynamics to Control Inflammation
- Infant Microbiota Communities and Human Milk Oligosaccharide Supplementation Independently and Synergistically Shape Metabolite Production and Immune Responses in Healthy Mice
- Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption Prevents Dysregulated Immune and Inflammatory Responses in High-Fat, Diet-Induced Obese Mice
- In Vitro Treatment with Metformin Significantly Reduces Senescent B Cells Present in the Adipose Tissue of People with Obesity
- Omega-3 Fatty Acids and Chronic Lung Diseases: A Narrative Review of Impacts from Womb to Tomb
- Dietary Eicosapentaenoic Acid Improves Ozone-Induced Pulmonary Inflammation in C57/BL6 Mice
We invite you to peruse the entire Special Issue. You’ll find articles that not only can be applied to human health and clinical practice, but also to animal wellbeing, One Health, and global food security. Moreover, we hope you’ll find information to advance your own research studies in the burgeoning field of nutrition immunology.
