Salt, Immune Function, and the Risk of Autoimmune Diseases

1. Korn T, Bettelli E, Oukka M, Kuchroo VK. IL-17 and Th17 cells. Annu Rev Immunol . 2009;27:485–517.2. Wu C, Yosef N, Thalhamer T, Zhu C, Xiao S, Kishi Y, et al. Induction of pathogenic TH17 cells by inducible salt-sensing kinase SGK1. Nature . 2013;496:513–517.3. Aggarwal S, Ghilardi N, Xie MH, de Sauvage FJ, Gurney AL. Interleukin-23 promotes a distinct CD4 T cell activation state characterized by the production of interleukin-17. J Biol Chem . 2003;278:1910–1914.4. Lang F, Bohmer C, Palmada M, Seebohm G, Strutz-Seebohm N, Vallon V. (Patho)physiological significance of the serum- and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase isoforms. Physiol Rev . 2006;86:1151–1178.Autoimmunity has dramatically increased in incidence over recent decades. Studies have shown that a subset of CD4+ T cells, known as interleukin-17 (IL-17)–producing helper T cells (TH17) cells, possess inflammatory properties and promote a variety of autoimmune diseases.1 In the current study, Wu et al2 present evidence that salt induces the differentiation of pathogenic TH17 cells and facilitates the development of autoimmune disease, providing a potential link between increasing salt intake and the rising incidence of autoimmunity.The authors performed transcriptional profiling of developing TH17 …