Fig. 1
From: Maternal elevated salt consumption and the development of autism spectrum disorder in the offspring
Effect of high salt on innate immunity. A high salt condition increases pro-inflammatory macrophages (M1) and activates inflammasomes that lead to the production of interleukin (IL)-1β. It also activates the MAPK pathway and increases the production of several chemokines and cytokines. High salt can also reduce the activity of alternative (cell repairing), non-inflammatory macrophages M2 (which produce regulatory cytokines such as IL-10) by dysregulating their AKT/mTOR signaling pathway