Elementary immunology: Na.sup.+ as a regulator of immunity

The skin can serve as an interstitial Na.sup.+ reservoir. Local tissue Na.sup.+ accumulation increases with age, inflammation and infection. This increased local Na.sup.+ availability favors pro-inflammatory immune cell function and dampens their anti-inflammatory capacity. In this review, we summarize available data on how NaCl affects various immune cells. We particularly focus on how salt promotes pro-inflammatory macrophage and T cell function and simultaneously curtails their regulatory and anti-inflammatory potential. Overall, these findings demonstrate that local Na.sup.+ availability is a promising novel regulator of immunity. Hence, the modulation of tissue Na.sup.+ levels bears broad therapeutic potential: increasing local Na.sup.+ availability may help in treating infections, while lowering tissue Na.sup.+ levels may be used to treat, for example, autoimmune and cardiovascular diseases.
Author(s): Valentin Schatz[sup.1] , Patrick Neubert[sup.1] , Agnes Schroder[sup.2] , Katrina Binger[sup.3] , Matthias Gebhard[sup.4] [sup.5] , Dominik N. Müller[sup.4] [sup.5] , Friedrich C. Luft[sup.4] [sup.5] [sup.6] , Jens Titze[sup.2] [...]