Skip to main content
News Icon

Publication

Study shows: Too much salt weakens the immune defense

Study by the University Hospital of Bonn shows: A diet rich in salt weakens the antibacterial immune defense

A high-salt diet is not only bad for one's blood pressure, but also for the immune system. This is the conclusion of a current study under the leadership of the University Hospital Bonn conducted by the Cluster member Prof. Christian Kurts.

Mice fed a high-salt diet were found to suffer from much more severe bacterial infections. Human volunteers who consumed an additional six grams of salt per day also showed pronounced immune deficiencies. This amount corresponds to the salt content of two fast food meals. The results are published in the journal "Science Translational Medicine". Five grams a day, no more: This is the maximum amount of salt that adults should consume according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO). It corresponds approximately to one level teaspoon. In reality, however, many Germans exceed this limit considerably: Figures from the Robert Koch Institute suggest that on average men consume ten, women more than eight grams a day.


Publication

Katarzyna Jobin, Natascha E. Stumpf, Sebastian Schwab, Melanie Eichler, Patrick Neubert, Manfred Rauh, Marek Adamowski, Olena Babyak, Daniel Hinze, Sugirthan Sivalingam, Christina K. Weisheit, Katharina Hochheiser, Susanne Schmidt, Mirjam Meissner, Natalio Garbi, Zeinab Abdullah, Ulrich Wenzel, Michael Hölzel, Jonathan Jantsch and Christian Kurts: A high-salt diet compromises antibacterial neutrophil responses through hormonal perturbation; Science Translational Medicine; DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aay3850

Related news

Bunte Spirale

Publication

When the map needs an update

—Every time we move through a familiar environment, the hippocampus consults an internal map, a detailed spatial representation that is built up through repeated experience. But what happens when something unexpected occurs on a well-known route? Researchers at the UKB and the University of Bonn were able to demonstrate in a mouse model that the brain does not redraw its maps from scratch. Instead, it annotates them: preserving the underlying spatial layout while overlaying new information on top of the existing map. Their findings have now been published in the journal PNAS.
View entry
Dr. Clivia Lisowski und Prof. Christian Kurts

Publication

Immune cells in the liver help pigeons navigate

—How do pigeons find their way home safely over distances of many kilometers? A research team from the University Hospital Bonn (UKB), the University of Bonn, the University of Duisburg-Essen, and the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Biology has now discovered a previously unknown mechanism: specific immune cells in the liver may help the birds detect the Earth’s magnetic field. The findings have now been published in the journal Science.
View entry
News Icon

Publication

Twin Lancet Publications Highlight Promising New Approach for Lupus Treatment

—A team of international researchers, including ImmunoSensation³ member Prof. Jörg Wenzel, reports promising phase 2 results for enpatoran, a first-in-class oral TLR7/8 inhibitor, in patients with cutaneous and systemic lupus erythematosus (CLE/SLE). In the WILLOW trial, enpatoran significantly improved skin disease activity in a dose-dependent manner and showed favourable safety outcomes. In systemic SLE, treatment also reduced global disease activity and rapidly suppressed the type I interferon gene signature. The twin studies were published in The Lancet and The Lancet Rheumatology.
View entry

Back to the news overview