Obese natural killers?

Obesity is a global health problem. Apart from being associated with a higher probability of developing cardiovascular diseases or diabetes, also 50% of cancers have been directly related to obesity. Regarding the latter, one of the hypotheses with what the researchers have been working on is that obesity is associated with problems of functioning of our internal army, for example increasing the levels of inflammation chronically (something you already know, not it's nothing good). However, could obesity be doing ... that other warriors also become obese ... causing them to "become lazy" and lose their ability to fight?

Precisely this question is the one that US scientists made. For this, they wanted to study some of our old acquaintances: the natural killer warriors (NKs), a real headache for the cancer-resistant rebel cells, when they work properly, of course. The researchers found, first, that obese patients had fewer warriors circulating through the blood, something that also happened when animal models (mice in this case) were fed a "Western" diet, rich in fat. This should already raise the alarm, although at this point it can not be ruled out that having fewer of these warriors will make them less efficient. And if there really are less, but are they more active?

To answer this second question, the scientists observed the ability to destroy rebellious cells by NK female warriors of non-obese individuals compared to those who did have obesity. What they saw left them stunned: normal NK female warriors and obese individuals could recognize identical rebellious cells. However, those of the latter were unable to destroy them! And how was this possible? Well, to make a complex conclusion a simple answer: the NK warriors of obese patients also became obese. And yes, as it sounds. His warriors began to take fats from the environment and this completely interfered with their normal way of acting. Thus, perhaps in an attempt to "cleanse" the organism of fats, they would put aside their more aggressive face and, unfortunately, give free rein to certain rebels.

We thought it was a really interesting study, since part of its conclusions are very useful and reflect on the need to understand the nutritional status of our warriors when studying different diseases, and not just cancer.