Li-Tzu Yeh, Yi-Ping Chuang, Shyi-Jou Chen, Chin-Chen Chu and Huey-Kang Sytwu
Diabetes Mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disease that can lead to a variety of complications, such as neuropathy, retinopathy, nephropathy, and cardiovascular disease. Furthermore, pathogen infection accompanied by considerable morbidity and mortality is common among diabetic patients. Increased susceptibility to pathogen infection results from impaired immune responses, such as lower cytokine production and reduced function or migration of immune cells. However, existing clinical data remains controversial because multiple diabetes-related factors such as obesity, hyperglycemia, hyperinsulinemia, and other comorbidities also increase the risk of infection. In recent decades, several animal models have been used to investigate the role played by immune dysfunction in increasing susceptibility to pathogens and related diseases in diabetes. This review focuses on studies that used diabetic animal models to study infectious diseases and summarizes potential mechanisms underlying dysfunction of the immune system in diabetes patients.