How do immune cells help to protect against atherosclerosis?

Type-2 innate lymphoid cells in the control of the immune atherogenic response to high fat diet  

BHF Professor Ziad Mallat at the University of Cambridge is studying how immune cells called type 2 innate lymphoid (or ILC2) cells, could help to protect against atherosclerosis, when arteries become furred up and narrow with fatty plaques. ILC2 cells are found in all parts of the body, particularly in the membrane or ‘mucosa’ that surrounds the body’s organs and also in fat that surrounds organs. They become activated when tissue is damaged, infected or has disrupted metabolic processes. Professor Mallat has found that these cells become more active after a high fat diet, and increasing the numbers of ILC2 cells in mice fed a high fat diet can protect arteries from atherosclerosis. But we don’t understand how a high fat diet causes these changes, and we don’t yet know how ILC2 cells influence atherosclerosis development. In this project, Professor Mallat will use state-of-the-art experimental techniques to work out how ILC2 cells protect against atherosclerosis. He wants to understand what happens to these cells when our arteries come into contact with fatty material. This research could reveal new ways to use these immune cells to slow atherosclerosis progression and prevent its severe complications , namely heart attacks and strokes.