Costs of immunity: immune responsiveness reduces survival in a vertebrate
Costs of immunity: immune responsiveness reduces survival in a vertebrate
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DOI：
10.1098/rspb.2004.2678
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发表时间：
2004-05-07
影响因子：
4.7
通讯作者：
Erikstad, KE
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Hanssen, SA;Hasselquist, D;Erikstad, KE
免疫防御无疑对宿主大有裨益，减少了感染性生物的影响。然而，不断增加的免疫反应也会带来成本，这可以通过诱导对人工感染的免疫反应来衡量。将绵羊红细胞(SRBC)、白喉类毒素和破伤风类毒素三种不同的非致病抗原注射到普通羽毛虫(Somateria Mollissima)雌体的潜伏期早期。在对SRBC产生体液免疫反应的雌鼠组中，返回率仅为27%，而不对SRBC产生体液免疫反应的雌鼠组的返回率为72%。此外，在对白喉类毒素作出反应的同时，对SRBC也作出反应，导致回报率进一步下降。这些结果是可重复的，因为相同的效果在两个研究年中独立发生。产生抗SRBC和白喉类毒素抗体的雌性鸟类的返回率严重下降，这意味着这些鸟类的长期生存受到了相当大的损害。因此，这项研究证明了在脊椎动物身上安装体液免疫反应的严重成本。这样的成本可能解释了为什么许多生物在压力下或营养不良时会抑制免疫力，以及为什么感染有时可能会被耐受，而不会引发免疫反应。
Immune defences are undoubtedly of great benefit to the host, reducing the impact of infectious organisms. However, mounting immune responses also entails costs, which may be measured by inducing immune responses against artificial infections. We injected common eider (Somateria mollissima) females with three different non-pathogenic antigens, sheep red blood cells (SRBC), diphtheria toxoid and tetanus toxoid, early in their incubation period. In the group of females that mounted a humoral immune response against SRBC, the return rate was only 27%, whereas the group of females that did not mount a response against SRBC had a return rate of 72%. Moreover, responding against diphtheria toxoid when also responding against SRBC led to a further reduction in return rate. These results are repeatable, as the same effect occurred independently in two study years. The severely reduced return rate of females producing antibodies against SRBC and diphtheria toxoid implies that these birds experienced considerably impaired long-term survival. This study thus documents severe costs of mounting humoral immune responses in a vertebrate. Such costs may explain why many organisms suppress immunity when under stress or when malnourished, and why infections may sometimes be tolerated without eliciting immune responses.