Source: RIKEN.

Scientists from the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences in Japan and collaborators have found that T cells — immune cells that help to protect the body from infections and cancer — change the body’s metabolism when they are activated, and that this activation actually leads to changes in behavior.

It is currently known that individual T cells change their metabolism to meet their energy needs after being activated, but the systemic metabolic effect of sustained activation of the immune system has remained unexplored. To understand the systemic effects, the group looked at T cell activation in mice designed to lack a surface receptor called PD-1, which is necessary for inhibiting the activity of T cells. T cells remain…