Associate Professor Texas A&M Univ., San Antnoio San Antonio, Texas, United States
Disclosure(s):
Chris A. Mares, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose
Introduction/Rationale: Sepsis is a serious medical condition that is triggered when the body responds to infection and can result in damaged tissues, organ failure, and death. It is estimated that nearly 49 million people per year are affected by sepsis with nearly 11 million people across the globe succumbing to sepsis each year. Obesity is a noncommunicable disease and its prevalence has increased throughout the years. Worldwide, nearly 890 million people are considered obese.
Methods: One of our main goals is to learn how obesity could potentially impact the outcome of infection. We are currently utilizing Klebsiella pneumoniae to model sepsis, as it can rapidly disseminate from the lungs to distal sites within days of infection. Others have shown that obesity can play a role in the host response to K. pneumoniae. Our current goal is to define how obesity may alter tissue specific cardiac immune responses using in vivo and in vitro approaches.
Results: We have measured cytokines in whole tissue homogenates from infected non-obese mice fed a control diet and infected obese mice fed a high fat diet. We are also using various histological techniques to uncover how immunopathology may be affected by infection in the context of high fat diet induced obesity.
Conclusion: In summary, our studies will help uncover how high fat diet induced obesity could potentially affect cardiac specific immune responses.
