Monocytes play different roles in stimulating T cells in obese diabetic individuals

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a chronic metabolic disorder, which was also found to involve a series of inflammatory disorders, including accumulation of macrophages and T cells in the adipose tissue, increased proinflammatory cytokine production, shifting of macrophage composition toward M1-type, and skewing of peripheral blood T cells toward IL-17 productions. However, these studies were primarily conducted in obese mouse models and/or human subjects with higher BMI, and may not reflect the role of the immune system in non-obese T2D pathogenesis. Here, we examined T cell and monocyte cytokine expression and function in both non-obese and obese T2D patients. We found that IFN-g production by circulating T cells were increased in both non-obese and obese T2D subjects, while IL-17 is only upregulated in obese T2D subjects. Also, circulating monocytes from obese T2D subjects had significantly higher IL-6 production than their counterparts in non-obese T2D subjects. Moreover, monocytes from non-obese T2D subjects could support IFN-g but not IL-17 production in vitro, while that from obese T2D subjects supported both IFN-g and IL-17 production. Together, our results revealed that the role immune system plays in T2D pathogenesis is more complicated than previously thought, and is affected by the person's BMI.