Contrasting effects of Western vs Mediterranean diets on monocyte inflammatory gene expression and social behavior in a primate model.
Corbin S C Johnson, Carol A Shively, Kristofer T Michalson, Amanda J Lea, Ryne J DeBo, Timothy D Howard, Gregory A Hawkins, Susan E Appt, Yongmei Liu, Charles E McCall, David M Herrington, Edward H Ip, Thomas C Register, Noah Snyder-Mackler
Author Information
Corbin S C Johnson: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States. ORCID
Carol A Shively: Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Kristofer T Michalson: Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Amanda J Lea: Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University, Princeton, United States. ORCID
Ryne J DeBo: Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States.
Timothy D Howard: Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Gregory A Hawkins: Department of Biochemistry, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States.
Susan E Appt: Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Yongmei Liu: Division of Cardiology, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, United States. ORCID
Charles E McCall: Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Molecular Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
David M Herrington: Department of Internal Medicine, Section on Cardiovascular Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States.
Edward H Ip: Department of Biostatistics and Data Science, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Thomas C Register: Department of Pathology, Section on Comparative Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, United States. ORCID
Noah Snyder-Mackler: Department of Psychology, University of Washington, Seattle, United States. ORCID
Dietary changes associated with industrialization increase the prevalence of chronic diseases, such as obesity, type II diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. This relationship is often attributed to an 'evolutionary mismatch' between human physiology and modern nutritional environments. Western diets enriched with foods that were scarce throughout human evolutionary history (e.g. simple sugars and saturated fats) promote inflammation and disease relative to diets more akin to ancestral human hunter-gatherer diets, such as a Mediterranean diet. Peripheral blood monocytes, precursors to macrophages and important mediators of innate immunity and inflammation, are sensitive to the environment and may represent a critical intermediate in the pathway linking diet to disease. We evaluated the effects of 15 months of whole diet manipulations mimicking Western or Mediterranean diet patterns on monocyte polarization in a well-established model of human health, the cynomolgus macaque (). Monocyte transcriptional profiles differed markedly between diets, with 40% of transcripts showing differential expression (FDR < 0.05). Monocytes from Western diet consumers were polarized toward a more proinflammatory phenotype. The Western diet shifted the co-expression of 445 gene pairs, including small RNAs and transcription factors associated with metabolism and adiposity in humans, and dramatically altered behavior. For example, Western-fed individuals were more anxious and less socially integrated. These behavioral changes were also associated with some of the effects of diet on gene expression, suggesting an interaction between diet, central nervous system activity, and monocyte gene expression. This study provides new molecular insights into an evolutionary mismatch and uncovers new pathways through which Western diets alter monocyte polarization toward a proinflammatory phenotype.
