Impairment Of Cellular And Humoral Immunity In Overweight Mongolian Gerbils (Meriones Unguiculatus)

Animal immunity is usually impaired in obesity. We know little about the effect of being overweight or obese on the immune function of wild rodents. The present study is aimed to test the hypothesis that immunity is suppressed in overweight Mongolian gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus). In the study, 16 overweight (body mass: 90.8127.6 g) and 16 lean gerbils (body mass: 60.577.7 g) were randomly selected from a total of 174 male gerbils (body mass range: 55.8144.7 g). Half of the overweight and lean males were injected with sterile saline; the others were immunochallenged (IC) with phytohaemagglutinin and keyhole limpet hemocyanin to assess cellular and humoral immunity, respectively. Body fat mass, wet and dry spleen mass, leukocyte counts, blood glucose levels and serum leptin levels were significantly higher in the overweight gerbils than in the lean gerbils. However, phytohemagglutinin response indicative of cellular immunity and immunoglobulin G concentrations was significantly lower in the IC overweight gerbils than in the IC lean gerbils. These results indicate that cellular and humoral immunity are impaired in the overweight gerbils. Excessive body fat mass, higher leukocyte counts and serum leptin levels imply that overweight gerbils are in a low grade inflammatory state.