New review from IMMEDIAB Team

Inflammatory and immune etiology of type 2 diabetes

By Camille Blériot, Élise Dalmas, Florent Ginhoux , Nicolas Venteclef

Trends in Immunology

Highlights

A specific type 2 diabetes (T2D) patient endotype, termed ‘severe insulin resistant’, is characterized by an atypical blood inflammatory response.
Immune predisposition might modulate pancreatic insulin secretion and insulin effects on metabolic organs such as the liver and adipose tissue.
Monocyte and macrophage activation might be used as a putative surrogate for tissue alterations in T2D.
The identification of early monocyte- and macrophage-specific biomarkers is required to assign an ‘inflammatory-mediated T2D’ endotype.

Abstract

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) represents a global threat affecting millions of patients worldwide. However, its causes remain incompletely dissected and we lack the tools to predict which individuals will develop T2D. Although there is a clear proven clinical association of T2D with metabolic disorders such as obesity and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), the existence of a significant number of nondiabetic obese subjects suggests yet-uncovered features of such relationships. Here, we propose that a significant proportion of individuals may harbor an immune profile that renders them susceptible to developing T2D. We note the heterogeneity of circulating monocytes and tissue macrophages in organs that are key to metabolic disorders such as liver, white adipose tissue (WAT), and endocrine pancreas, as well as their contribution to T2D genesis.

Keywords

type 2 diabetes
endotype
immunity
tissue macrophages

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