Highlights of the 29^th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in MS (ECTRIMS), Copenhagen, DK, October 2-5, 2013 – A Yale University study presented earlier this year suggested that dietary sodium chloride levels may drive autoimmune diseases by induced pathogenic Th17 cells, based on results from mouse and human cell cultures (Kleinewietfeld et al. Nature 2013;496:518-522). In high-salt conditions, Th17 cells increased production of inflammatory cytokines such as TNF-alpha and IL-2.