ArticleJCI insight2017
NK cells in childhood obesity are activated, metabolically stressed, and functionally deficient.
Article in JCI insight, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 69 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
69 citing papers in PubMed, 115 citations in OpenAlex.
- Impaired natural killer cell subset phenotypes in human obesity.Immunologic research · 2018Trial
- NADPharmaceutical science advances · 2026Article
- T cell dysregulation and remodeling in pediatric obesity and weight loss.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Polyphenol-rich extra-virgin olive oil influences bioenergetics and may modulate NLRP3 inflammasome in PBMCs from children and adolescents with obesity.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Mitochondrial impairment and mTORC1 signalling exhaustion define NK Cell dysfunction progression in melanoma.Cancer immunology, immunotherapy : CII · 2026Article
- Implications of adipocyte dysfunction in pediatric obesity: a narrative review.Pediatric endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism · 2026Review
- Leptin as a Potential Modifier of Neuroinflammation: Contrasting Roles in Alzheimer's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Single-cell transcriptomics reveals apolipoprotein A4-mediated metabolic-immune reprogramming in lymphocytes during early obesity-related chronic kidney disease.Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica · 2025Article
- Dissecting the mechanisms of MASLD fibrosis in the era of single-cell and spatial omics.The Journal of clinical investigation · 2025Review
- Early NK-cell and T-cell dysfunction marks progression to severe dengue in patients with obesity and healthy weight.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Obesity, white adipose tissue and cancer.The FEBS journal · 2025Review
- Obesity drives dysregulation in DC responses to viral infection.Discovery immunology · 2025Article
- Obesity modulates NK cell activity via LDL and DUSP1 signaling for populations with adverse social determinants.JCI insight · 2024Article
- Pilot Data Suggest That Obesity and Presence of Malignancy Are Associated with Altered Immune Cell Infiltration in Endometrial Biopsies.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Persistence of a Skewed Repertoire of NK Cells in People with HIV-1 on Long-Term Antiretroviral Therapy.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2024Article
- Real-time ex vivo monitoring of NK cell migration toward obesity-associated oesophageal adenocarcinoma following modulation of CX3CR1.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- Gut microbiota, immunity, and bile acid metabolism: decoding metabolic disease interactions.Life metabolism · 2023Review
- Low Muscle and High Fat Percentages Are Associated with Low Natural Killer Cell Activity: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Immunometabolism: a new dimension in immunotherapy resistance.Frontiers of medicine · 2023Review
- The Impact of Obesity on T and NK Cells after LVAD Implantation.Obesity facts · 2023Article
9 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Childhood obesity is a major global concern, with over 50 million children now classified as obese. Obesity has been linked to the development of numerous chronic inflammatory diseases, including type 2 diabetes and multiple cancers. NK cells are a subset of innate effector cells, which play an important role in the regulation of adipose tissue and antitumor immunity. NK cells can spontaneously kill transformed cells and coordinate subsequent immune responses through their production of cytokines. We investigated the effect of obesity on NK cells in a cohort of obese children, compared to children with a healthy weight. We demonstrated a reduction in peripheral NK cell frequencies in childhood obesity and inverse correlations with body mass index and insulin resistance. Compared with NK cells from children with normal weight, we show increased NK cell activation and metabolism in obese children (PD-1, mTOR activation, ECAR, and mitochondrial ROS), along with a reduced capacity to respond to stimulus, ultimately leading to loss of function (proliferation and tumor lysis). Collectively we show that NK cells from obese children are activated, metabolically stressed, and losing the ability to perform their basic duties. Paired with the reduction in NK cell frequencies in childhood obesity, this suggests that the negative effect on antitumor immunity is present early in the life course of obesity and certainly many years before the development of overt malignancies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.