TY - JOUR T1 - Individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes have additional immune dysfunction compared with obese individuals who are metabolically healthy JF - BMJ Open Diabetes Research & Care JO - BMJ Open Diab Res Care DO - 10.1136/bmjdrc-2016-000379 VL - 5 IS - 1 SP - e000379 AU - Caroline Richard AU - Michael Wadowski AU - Susan Goruk AU - Lisa Cameron AU - Arya M Sharma AU - Catherine J Field Y1 - 2017/05/01 UR - http://drc.bmj.com/content/5/1/e000379.abstract N2 - Objective The objective of the current study was to compare the responses to different ex vivo immunogenic challenges between immune cells derived from metabolically healthy subjects with obesity and subjects with obesity and type 2 diabetes.Research design and methods We recruited 10 metabolically healthy subjects with obesity (Edmonton Obesity Staging System (EOSS) stage 0) and 9 subjects with obesity and type 2 diabetes (EOSS stage 2) aged between 21 years and 70 years and matched for body mass index. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were isolated and immune cell phenotypes and ex vivo cytokine production after phytohaemagglutinin (PHA, a T cell mitogen) stimulation were determined. Neutrophil oxidative burst activity was assessed in whole blood.Results PBMCs from subjects with stage 2 obesity produced significantly less interleukin (IL)-2, IL-6 and tumour necrosis factor α after PHA stimulation than PBMCs from subjects with stage 0 obesity (all, p<0.05). Subjects with stage 2 obesity also had higher proportions of cytotoxic T cells, activated helper T cells (CD4+CD278+) and inflammatory monocytes (CD14+CRTh2+, all p<0.05). Poststimulation, neutrophils from subjects with stage 2 obesity produced significantly more free radicals, were larger and more granular and had a lower stimulation index (all p<0.05).Conclusions Our results suggest that compared with obese individuals metabolically healthy individuals with obesity and type 2 diabetes have an impaired neutrophil function and T cell response on challenge despite having a T cell population expressing more activation markers which may be partly responsible for the increased prevalence of infection reported in this population. ER -