The so-called ‘Western diet’ — characterized by an excess of saturated fats and carbohydrates — causes low-grade chronic inflammation and increases risk for obesity, metabolic diseases and some cancers. While the innate immune component of this association has been well studied, less is known about the aetiological role of adaptive immune responses in diet-induced metabolic disease. Now, a study in Science Immunology describes antigen-specific autoreactivity, elicited by metabolic stress owing to a high-fat and high-fructose diet (HFHF), that contributes to liver damage in type 2 diabetes (T2D).

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