A Mathematical Model of the Immune System's Role in Obesity-Related Chronic Inflammation

Obesity is quickly becoming a pandemic. The low-grade chronic inammation associated with obesity leads to health risks such as cancer, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes mellitus. To better understand the progression of obesityrelated chronic inammation, mice were fed either a high fat or low fat diet over 140 days. At days 0, 35, 70, and 140, the percentages of macrophage subsets, CD4+ T cells, and regulatory-T cells inltrating the intra-abdominal white adipose tissue (WAT) were examined. Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) mRNA expression in WAT was also quantied. Additionally, glucosenormalizing ability was examined by administering peritoneal glucose tolerance tests. This research was conducted during a ten-week research experience for undergraduates. A group of eight undergraduate students participated: Pablo D