# Dietary Lipids and Silica-Triggered Autoimmunity.

> **NIH NIH R01** · MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $416,246

## Abstract

While heredity is a primary predisposing factor for autoimmunity, cumulative exposures to
environmental factors such as toxic stressors and diet greatly impact latency and severity autoimmune
diseases such as lupus. Our goal is to understand how lupus triggering by an ubiquitous
environmental toxicant can be prevented by dietary modulation of cellular lipids. This goal is
predicated on preliminary studies revealing that 1)airway exposure to crystalline silica, a
recognized autoimmune disease risk factor, triggers early onset of systemic autoimmunity and
glomerulonephritis in the lupus-prone female NZBWF1 mouse and 2)supplementing their diets
with the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), a well-known dietary supplement
extracted from cold-water fish, dose-dependently blocks this triggering. Here, we will employ in
vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo approaches to test the hypothesis that DHA consumption prevents silica-
triggered autoimmunity by suppressing inflammasome activation, cell death and self-antigen
release in alveolar macrophages of NZBWF1 mice. Revealing DHA mechanisms against silica-
triggered lupus will bring novel insights into how respiratory toxicants initiate lupus and
subsequent flaring via lung as well as how manipulating cellular lipids through diet can be
exploited to prevent environmental triggering of human autoimmune disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10167710
- **Project number:** 5R01ES027353-05
- **Recipient organization:** MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** James J Pestka
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $416,246
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-01 → 2022-12-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10167710

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10167710, Dietary Lipids and Silica-Triggered Autoimmunity. (5R01ES027353-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10167710. Licensed CC0.

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