Metabolic Stress, Heat Shock Proteins, and Innate Immune Response

Abstract A number of metabolic stress conditions of interest for human beings share common features with metabolic disorders of modern dairy cows and other high yielding farm animal species reared under intensive farming conditions. Metabolic stress can activate the innate immune system with consequent modulation, of the ability of the host, to respond to pathogens. Direct activation of the innate immune response is due to the ability of immune cells, to respond to danger signals different from microbes that are known as danger-associated molecular patterns, which can be generated under a variety of metabolic stress conditions. Metabolic stressors may modulate innate immunity also indirectly by inducing a heat shock response. This implies the production of stress proteins acting as danger signals for the innate immune system. The effects of direct and indirect activation/modulation of the innate immune system by metabolic stressors may dictate the inflammatory profile of the immune response during microbial infections and disease.