{
  "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.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Medicine, NYU Langone Health, New York, NY 10016, USA.",
    "Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.",
    "Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.",
    "Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor, NY 11724, USA.",
    "Northwell Health, Manhasset, NY 11030, USA.",
    "Faculty of Applied Bioscience, Department of Nutritional Science and Food Safety, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Setagaya, Tokyo 156-8502, Japan.",
    "The New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center, Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.",
    "Department of Pediatrics and USDA Children's Nutrition Research Center, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.",
    "Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Indiana University School of Public Health-Bloomington, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA.",
    "Department of Physiology and Biophysics, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY 10065, USA.",
    "Department of Cell Biology and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02215, USA.",
    "Steno Diabetes Center Copenhagen, 2730 Herlev, Denmark.",
    "Lead contact."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 21,
  "authors": [
    {
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        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Ezequiel Dantas"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Yushu Shi"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Jeshua Kim"
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    {
      "affs": [
        1
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      "name": "Anirudh Murthy"
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        0
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      "name": "Alexander Emmanuelli"
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    {
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        1
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      "name": "Shiri Li"
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    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Tiffany Perrier"
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    {
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        1
      ],
      "name": "Tanvir Ahmed"
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    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Isaac Nathoo"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Carolina E Echeverria"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Yingzhao Wang"
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    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Omar Abdallah"
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    {
      "affs": [
        3,
        4
      ],
      "name": "Tobias Janowitz"
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    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Maurice A Hurd"
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    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        5
      ],
      "name": "Noriko Suzuki-Kemuriyama"
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    {
      "affs": [
        6
      ],
      "name": "Cara B Ebbeling"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        7,
        8
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      "name": "David B Allison"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "Benjamin D Hopkins"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10
      ],
      "name": "Lewis C Cantley"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6,
        11
      ],
      "name": "David S Ludwig"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        12
      ],
      "name": "Marcus D Goncalves"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cp4wvzm8z5mg5.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.cpblue.2026.100122",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13679806",
  "id": "cp4wvzm8z5mg5",
  "issns": [
    "3051-3839"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42899010",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
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      "openalex",
      "2737|Diet and metabolism studies"
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  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13679806?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13679806",
  "pmid": "42899010",
  "published": "2026-09-09",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cp4wvzm8z5mg5.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:41Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42899010",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42899010"
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  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:2737|Diet and metabolism studies",
      "subfield": "physiology"
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  ],
  "title": "Effects of refined carbohydrates on immune markers after weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet: A randomized controlled feeding trial.",
  "title_text": "Effects of refined carbohydrates on immune markers after weight loss on a very-low-carbohydrate diet: A randomized controlled feeding trial.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:41Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cp4wvzm8z5mg5",
  "venue": "Cell press blue",
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}