Energetic and nutritional regulation of the adaptive immune response and trade‐offs in ecological immunology

Ecological Immunology views immunocompetence as a costly process involving trade‐off decisions among competing nutrient demands by different life‐history traits. This review examines immunocompetence fitness costs in light of recent work on the role the energetic and nutritional status of the host plays in the regulation of the adaptive T‐helper lymphocyte response. Three phenotypically distinct T‐lymphocyte populations have been identified: the Th1 response, important in protecting against intracellular infections; the Th2 response, important in protecting against noninvasive infections such as helminthes; and the Th3 or Treg population, which downregulates polarized Th1 or Th2 responses. A strong Th1 response is protective against intracellular infections, while a Th2 response is protective against noninvasive infections. Adequate zinc and energy intake leads to a dominant Th1 response and a downregulated Th2 response, while deficiencies of either of these results in activation of the Th2 response and downregulation of the Th1 response. In contrast, adequate vitamin A intake leads to an activated Th2 response and downregulation of the Th1 response, while vitamin A deficiency reverses these patterns. These differential immune regulatory effects of energy and nutrient intake will have distinct effects on specific stages of the natural history of different pathogen infections where the protective roles of the Th1‐Th2 responses are distinct. Accordingly, fitness costs of immunocompetence are more complex than currently proposed since trade‐offs in energetic and nutritional resources produce cross‐regulatory effects on immune system subcomponents. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 16:499–507, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.