Immunomodulatory Effects of Fasting in Healthy Adults
University of California, Davis
Summary
This is a clinical trial assessing the effects of fasting on the immune system in healthy adults. Immune profiling, gene expression profiling, and flow cytometry on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) will be performed and we hypothesize that a period of fasting will alter the immune system in healthy adults.
Description
Dietary restriction (DR) is an intervention demonstrated to increase healthy lifespan in various model organisms including yeast, worms, mice, and rhesus monkeys (Lee et al., 2016, Fontana et al., 2015). It has been investigated extensively as a therapeutic modality in metabolic disease such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and obesity, with evidence of benefit independent of weight loss (Wilkinson et al., 2020, Zhu et al., 2020, Di Francesco et al., 2018). The major DR regimens include caloric restriction (CR) (Fontana et al., 2010), time-restricted feeding (TRF) (Brandhorst et al., 2…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 20–40 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Yes
Inclusion Criteria: * Age: 20-40 years, to constitute a young study population * Gender: male subjects, to control for gender differences * BMI: 19-27 kg/m2 to constitute a normal/healthy weight population * Weight: 120 lbs or more * Fasting glucose: 70-100 mg/dL, to ensure that fasting can be tolerated without inducing dangerously low levels of blood glucose * Subjects must be willing to undergo a period of 36 hours of water-only fasting * Subjects must be willing to collect samples of each bowel movement produced throughout the entire study period for microbiome analysis * Subjects must be…
Interventions
- BehavioralDietary Fasting
The study will consist of two days of eating a "controlled habitual diet" and one 36-hour period of water-only fasting with glucose monitoring as a measure of compliance. Water intake will be limited to 2 liters/day to prevent electrolyte abnormalities. Subjects will undergo 4 separate blood-draws consisting of an overnight fasted sample (Baseline), a 2-hour postprandial sample (Fed), a 36-hour fasted sample (Fasted), and final 2-hour postprandial sample after the fasting period (Refed).
Location
- UC DavisSacramento, California