Study of Immune Response in Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes (IMMUNOBEDIA)

There is a link between activation of the immune response inducing chronic inflammation and both obesity and type 2 diabetes. To date, however, the cause(s) of this inflammation, the mechanisms of the inflammatory cascade and the type of cells involved are not completely known. The aim of our project is to study the principal cell types involved in the immune response from a quantitative and functional point of view in obese diabetic patients versus obese non-diabetic patients and healthy subjects who are neither diabetic nor obese.

Despite possible inter-individual heterogeneity of immune cells, the fact that this work will be carried out by an accredited team with considerable expertise in the study of almost all the different types of immune cells will probably make it possible to know whether cell dysfunction and inflammation are associated with obesity or rather linked to insulin resistance. This study will be completed later by a second study on cell infiltration in adipose tissues in the 3 groups defined above. Better understanding of the physiopathology and especially the mechanisms and type of cells involved in obesity-related inflammation could quickly lead to the development of appropriate therapies that could act specifically on the cells involved and thus preclude the onset of complications.