Effect of acute nutritional deprivation on host defenses against Listeria monocytogenes--macrophage function.

Abstract

Acute nutritional deprivation or starvation occurs frequently in the United States during such conditions as chemotherapy for malignancy and surgery. Despite this, the effect of starvation on host defense mechanisms has largely been ignored. In a previous study (1), we established a model of acute starvation in mice and used Listeria monocytogenes as an immunologic probe to investigate host defenses. Paradoxically, starved mice were resistant to normally lethal doses of Listeria. The protective mechanism in starved mice was not defined, although the tumoristatic capacity of macrophages from starved mice was increased. In the experiments described here, the effect of starvation on macrophage function was studied in detail as a possible mechanism for the increased resistance to Listeria.