Macroparasites, innate immunity and immunoregulation: developing natural models

Innate immune receptors carry out surveillance for infection threats and are a proximal controller of the threshold and intensity at which inflammatory responses occur. As such, they are a natural focus for understanding how inflammatory immune reactivity is regulated. This review highlights how little data there are relating to the effect of macroparasites on systemic innate receptor responses. The idea is developed that studies on innate immune function in wild animals exposed to a natural profile of infections, including macroparasites, might be a valuable model in which to test hypotheses about the ultimate cause of aberrant inflammation in modern human populations.