What influences us to lose weight during infectious diseases?
Last reviewed: 07.06.2024
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Interestingly, during the active phase of the infectious process, T-lymphocytes draw energy potential from adipose and muscle tissue.
During illness, most people lose weight. This is not only due to loss of appetite, but also to other phenomena. In order to cope with the disease, the immune system consumes a large amount of energy, which the body has to take from muscle and fat tissue. By the way, the loss of appetite in this case is explained by the same energy deficit, because the digestive processes also take a significant part of energy resources, even though the digested food then makes up for this deficit. All processes in combination with each other can cause a dangerous state of exhaustion. As a result, even after successfully overcoming the infection, the person still feels weak and weak for a long time.
The immune system is a complex mechanism that has the primary goal of eliminating disease, even at the expense of well-being. Is it possible to change this chain of processes? In order to answer this question, it is necessary to understand how exactly energy resources are withdrawn.
Representatives of the Salk Institute have investigated the process of immune "uptake" of fat and muscle tissue during an infectious disease. This process has two stages and may depend on the type of T-lymphocytes. The study was conducted on rodents with a chronic form of trypanosomiasis, an infection caused by the single-celled parasite Trypanosoma brucei. T-lymphocytes, which are known to be divided into T-killers (attacking pathogenic cells and structures affected by them) and T-helpers (regulators of immune reactions), acted against the pathogen at a certain stage. T-helpers have been found to be responsible for the loss of adipose tissue and decreased cravings for food. If T-helpers were inactivated in rodents, the success of recovery was not affected. But the decrease in muscle tissue is associated with the activity of T-killers, which in this situation work without "binding" to T-helpers. If T-killers were switched off, the process of recovery became much more complicated.
The scientists talk about these important findings of the experiment. First, both types of T-lymphocytes are not interdependent if there is a need to withdraw energy from tissues. Second, the increased consumption of adipose tissue, initiated by T-helpers, has no effect on the process of fighting infection. It turns out that the state of exhaustion can be avoided by stopping the increased fat utilization by T-helper cells.
It is possible that the energy derived from adipose tissue has some other purpose after all. The researchers point to the need for additional experiments with other infections, which may yield different, even radically opposite results. It is quite possible that energy expenditure and the mechanism of T-lymphocyte function depend on the specific infectious agent that has entered the body.
More information about the study can be found on the page at