Effects of refined carbohydrates on immune markers after weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet: A randomized controlled feeding trial

Dantas, Ezequiel, Shi, Yushu, Kim, Jeshua, Murthy, Anirudh, Emmanuelli, Alexander, Li, Shiri, Perrier, Tiffany, Ahmed, Tanvir, Nathoo, Isaac, Echeverria, Carolina E, Wang, Yingzhao, Abdallah, Omar, Janowitz, Tobias, Hurd, Maurice A, Suzuki-Kemuriyama, Noriko, Ebbeling, Cara B, Allison, David B, Hopkins, Benjamin D, Cantley, Lewis C, Ludwig, David S, Goncalves, Marcus D (September 2026) Effects of refined carbohydrates on immune markers after weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet: A randomized controlled feeding trial. Cell Press Blue. p. 100122. ISSN 3051-3839 (Public Dataset)

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Abstract

This study explored the effects of three diets differing in the amount and type of carbohydrates on peripheral immune markers. After a 15% weight loss with a very-low-carbohydrate diet (VLCD), participants were randomized to isocaloric diets: VLCD, high-carbohydrate diet with high starch content (HC-Starch), or high-carbohydrate diet with high sugar content (HC-Sugar). Changes in peripheral immune markers were assessed in 44 participants using multimodal analyses before randomization and after 10 weeks on the diet. In HC-Starch, cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF) revealed significant shifts in proportions of circulating natural killer (NK) cells and increased activation markers in NK cells, monocytes, T cells, dendritic cells, and neutrophils. In agreement, transcriptomics showed upregulation of immune and metabolic pathways with HC-Starch but reductions with HC-Sugar. Cytokine analysis and mouse experiments suggested that increased adipsin and complement activation could underlie these changes. Following weight loss with VLCD, starch-rich diets serve as an unrecognized driver of inflammation. This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03394664.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: diseases & disorders
diseases & disorders > inflammation > cytokines
diseases & disorders > inflammation
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Janowitz lab
SWORD Depositor: CSHL Elements
Depositing User: CSHL Elements
Date: September 2026
Date Deposited: 18 Sep 2026 14:58
Last Modified: 18 Sep 2026 14:58
Related URLs:
Dataset ID:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/42313

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