pathway
Immunometabolism Engine
How immune cells choose glycolysis, oxidative phosphorylation, fatty acid oxidation, hypoxia programs, and exhaustion states.
Review layer
Last reviewed 2026-05-17
Systems teaching draft. Content is structured for education and graph expansion, with formal source tagging ready for the next review pass.
core
Systems Frame
This module models immune activation as an energy allocation problem. Acute defense, chronic priming, tissue repair, tolerance, and exhaustion each carry different metabolic signatures.
Core Concepts
Key Interactions
Inflammatory macrophages use glycolysis and succinate/HIF-1alpha to support IL-1beta programs.
Memory T cells depend on mitochondrial quality and oxidative metabolism.
Tregs and repair macrophages often align with fatty acid oxidation and tissue restoration.
Hypoxia shifts barrier tissues toward alarmins, angiogenesis, and inflammatory persistence.
Scenario Examples
obesity -> adipose macrophage activation
sleep debt -> inflammatory priming
chronic infection -> T cell mitochondrial strain