Ex-smokers’ immune systems remain weakened long after quitting

Two types of immunity can be distinguished. First, the innate immune system, which begins immediately after the introduction of the pathogen, then the second part of the immune response, the adaptive immunity, which consists of T lymphocytes and antibodies to recognize and destroy the microbe, and most one day fight it. to remember. .

But what separates your immune system from mine? We know that many factors come into play, including age, gender and genes. To answer this question, a set of names internal environment The Institut was created by a consortium of researchers from Pasteur. By conducting immune stimulation in the laboratory using the participants’ blood samples, this new study shows that three variables stand out: previous cytomegalovirus infection, high body mass index but also smoking status, even if the subject quit smoking a long time ago. . How to explain it? What type of immune system is disrupted by tobacco in the long term?

Explanation with Violin St. AndreResearcher and first author in the Translational Immunology Unit and at the Bioinformatics and Biostatistics Hub of the Pasteur Institute The new study is published in Nature.

“What we’ve noticed is that when we look at ex-smokers (…) to stimulate the adaptive immune system, we see that we always have this hyperstimulation of cytokines after induction with agents that non-smokers have. Relatively activates lymphocytes. This means that this response persists over time, and in ex-smokers, their response is more similar to that of smokers than non-smokers.”