For the study, researchers examined the immune response to the influenza vaccine in both obese and lean mice. After vaccination and upon being exposed to influenza, obese mice had lower levels of antibodies and higher levels of the virus than their lean counterparts. Ultimately, the lean mice were protected from severe influenza infections and obese mice were not.
“This is the first study to show that current strategies to bolster the effectiveness of flu vaccines protected lean mice from serious illness but fell short of protecting obese mice from infections,” said corresponding author Stacey Schultz-Cherry, PhD, a member of the St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases in Memphis, Tenn. “There is a critical public health need to translate these findings to humans and understand vaccine response in this growing segment of the population.”
According to a recent report from the CDC, Americans are approximately 15 pounds heavier than they were 20 years ago.
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