Abstract
Body mass is considered to be related with immune function in animals. Our aim was to test the hypothesis that cellular and innate immunity would be suppressed in high body mass of Siberian hamsters (Phodopus sungorus). Six heavier (high body mass, HBM) and six lighter (low body mass, LBM) hamsters were selected from 28 male hamsters. Body mass, body fat mass, wet spleen mass and blood glucose levels were significantly higher in the HBM group than in the LBM group. However, phytohaemagglutinin response, serum bacteria killing capacity and white blood cells did not differ between the two groups, suggesting cellular and innate immunity was not impaired in high body mass of hamsters. There was no correlation between cellular, innate immunity and body mass, body fat mass and glucose levels, suggesting cellular and innate immunity was not suppressed by higher body mass, body fat mass and glucose levels. In summary, cellular and innate immunity was not impaired in the HBM hamsters compared with the LBM hamsters.
Highlights
Obesity becomes more and more prevalent and it is associated with several chronic diseases [1,2,3,4,5]
The HBM hamsters had significantly higher body mass, wet carcass mass, perigonadal, mesenteric and total body fat mass than those of the LBM hamsters, while retroperitoneal and subcutaneous fat mass did not differ between the two groups (Table 1)
Not differ between the high and low body mass groups, indicating that both cellular and innate immunity were not suppressed in the high body mass hamsters
Summary
Obesity becomes more and more prevalent and it is associated with several chronic diseases [1,2,3,4,5]. The mechanism may be due to the changes of immune responses in obesity [8,9,10]. Cellular immunity is suppressed in ob/ob mice whose leptin gene was genetically mutated [12,13,14]. Suppression of immune responses are observed in diet-induced obese mice [17,18,19] or rats [20, 21]. Both cellular and humoral immunity are dampened in overweight Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) [22]. Immune responses were not changed in diet-induced obese cats [26]
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