SYDNEY, March 5 (Xinhua) -- The types of dietary fats consumed directly impact the survival and strength of the body's immune cells and ability to fight disease, researchers have found.
An international collaboration led by Australia's University of Queensland (UQ) found that diet can alter the fat composition inside T cells -- the immune cells that help protect a person from infections and cancer, according to a UQ statement released on Thursday.
The team found that diets lower in polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) relative to monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) enhance T-cell resistance to oxidation-induced cell death, according to Professor Yu Di of UQ's Frazer Institute, corresponding author of the study published in Nature.
"The kinds of fats you eat change the fat composition inside your T cells, and those changes can make T cells either weaker or stronger in terms of immune protection," Yu said, adding that how bodies and cells process dietary fats, or lipid metabolism, is critical to immune function.
"This discovery shows that dietary changes could potentially boost the effectiveness of vaccines and cancer therapies," he said.
PUFAs are found in fatty fish and soybeans, while MUFAs include olive oil and avocados, though the ideal PUFA-MUFA ratio remains unclear, and further research is needed to determine the exact role of the different fats in T-cell death, Yu said. ■
