The effects of extracellular pH on immune function

By A. Lardner. Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 2001

842 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The effect of alterations in extracellular pH on cellular and humoral immune function is reviewed. Because acidic pH predominates at inflammatory loci and other sites of immune activity, most studies to date focus on the effect of acidic rather than alkaline pH. Investigations on polymorphonuclear leukocytes demonstrate mainly inhibition of chemotaxis, respiratory activity, and bactericidal capacity at reduced pH. Evidence of impaired lymphocyte cytotoxicity and proliferation at acidic pH is also beginning to emerge. Many of the clinical acidoses are accompanied similarly by immunodeficiency. Studies on macrophages and eosinophils are few and inconclusive. A small number of studies demonstrate acid‐induced activation of complement proteins and the alternative complement pathway, plus increased antibody‐binding to leukocytes at lowered pH. A differential effect of acidic pH on humoral and cellular immunity may, therefore, exist. Increasing recognition of the significance of extracellular pH in relation to immune function warrants further studies in this presently incomplete but rewarding field.

Subfields: Molecular Biology, Nephrology, Nutrition and Dietetics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a676f054a6d373cf07e7456e34b3a3cbe9ce0a72

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Citations in the corpus

Store-Operated Calcium Channels. (2015, neutral): “Acidification of the extracellular milieu commonly occurs in normal tissues during episodes of intense metabolic activity, hypoxic insults, and inflammation, as well as during neoplastic transformation where pH decline is correlated with tumor aggressiveness (185, 405).”
Acidity generated by the tumor microenvironment drives local invasion (2013, background): “The resulting acidic environment is toxic to normal cells, promotes a degradation of the extracellular matrix by proteinases (16), increases angiogenesis through the release of VEGF, and inhibits the immune response to tumor antigens (17-19).”
Tumour hypoxia induces a metabolic shift causing acidosis: a common feature in cancer (2009, background): “Extracellular tumour acidosis is an indicator of bad prognosis and has the property to facilitate tumour invasion by the degradation of the extracellular matrix [25, 26] and to reduce immunosurveillance by inhibiting the activity of natural killer (NK) cells [27] and the cytolytic activity of cytoto”
Tumor cell metabolism: cancer's Achilles' heel. (2008, background): “Acidification of tumor beds can inhibit the activity of NK cells (Lardner, 2001).”
Acid-mediated tumor invasion: a multidisciplinary study. (2006, background): “acidosis inhibits immune response to tumor antigens (31).”