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Western lifestyle linked to maladaptive trained immunity
Summary
This review examines how aspects of Western lifestyle, including diet, chronic stress, and environmental exposures to air pollution and microplastics, may trigger maladaptive trained immunity in innate immune cells. Trained immunity normally provides a survival advantage by making immune cells more responsive after an initial stimulus, but chronic activation can exacerbate inflammatory diseases. The authors suggest that microplastics and other modern environmental triggers may contribute to persistent, harmful immune reprogramming.
Trained immunity (TI) refers to a state of innate immune cells that, after encountering an initial stimulus and undergoing epigenetic reprogramming and metabolic changes, allows them to respond more effectively to a subsequent challenge. TI yields a survival advantage, particularly in a pathogen-rich context. However, maladaptive TI may damage the host by exacerbating inflammatory diseases. Here we review which aspects of Western lifestyle may contribute to maladaptive TI, including a Western diet, periodontitis, chronic psychological stress, and environmental triggers such as air pollution and microplastics. Finally, we consider lifestyle intervention as a way to prevent or reduce the impact of maladaptive TI.