What is it about?
People whose adrenal glands are not functioning have an increased rate of infection and also die more often from infections. We have found that an important type of immune cells, the natural killer cells, is not functioning well in patients with adrenal failure.
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Why is it important?
As natural killer cells are needed to protect the body against infection, this may explain why patients with adrenal failure are more likely to succumb to infection. Further research will try to find ways to improve the natural killer cell activity in adrenal failure patients.
Perspectives
Patients with adrenal failure need replacement with cortisol tablets for survival. However, this replacement therapy is not able to mimic the daily rhythm of cortisol secretion by the adrenals in healthy persons, who have high levels early in the morning and then lower levels in the evening and night. This unnatural cortisol rhythm due to the replacement in adrenal failure patients may explain the loss of function in their natural killer cells, as cortisol is needed for healthy killer cells.
Prof Wiebke Arlt
University of Birmingham
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Primary adrenal insufficiency is associated with impaired natural killer cell function: a potential link to increased mortality, European Journal of Endocrinology, February 2017, Bioscientifica,
DOI: 10.1530/eje-16-0969.
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