T cell subset-specific susceptibility to aging

Abstract With increasing age, the competence of the immune system to fight infections and tumors declines. Age-dependent changes have been mostly described for human CD8 T cells, raising the question of whether the response patterns for CD4 T cells are different. Gene expression arrays of memory CD4...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Clinical immunology (Orlando, Fla.) Fla.), 2008-04, Vol.127 (1), p.107-118
Main Authors: Czesnikiewicz-Guzik, Marta, Lee, Won-Woo, Cui, Dapeng, Hiruma, Yuko, Lamar, David L, Yang, Zhi-Zhang, Ouslander, Joseph G, Weyand, Cornelia M, Goronzy, Jörg J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Aging
Aging - immunology
Allergy and Immunology
Biological and medical sciences
CD4
CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology
CD8
CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes - immunology
CD85
Female
Flow Cytometry
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Fundamental immunology
Homeostasis - immunology
Humans
Immunophenotyping
Immunosenescence
Killer immunoglobulin-like receptors
Male
Middle Aged
Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis
T-cell homeostasis
T-cell subset
T-Lymphocyte Subsets - immunology
Transcription, Genetic
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Summary:Abstract With increasing age, the competence of the immune system to fight infections and tumors declines. Age-dependent changes have been mostly described for human CD8 T cells, raising the question of whether the response patterns for CD4 T cells are different. Gene expression arrays of memory CD4 T cells yielded a similar age-induced fingerprint as has been described for CD8 T cells. In cross-sectional studies, the phenotypic changes were not qualitatively different for CD4 and CD8 T cells, but occurred much more frequently in CD8 T cells. Homeostatic stability partially explained this lesser age sensitivity of CD4 T cells. With aging, naïve and central memory CD8 T cells were lost at the expense of phenotypically distinct CD8 effector T cells, while effector CD4 T cells did not accumulate. However, phenotypic shifts on central memory T cells were also more pronounced in CD8 T cells. This distinct stability in cell surface marker expression can be reproduced in vitro. The data show that CD8 T cells are age sensitive by at least two partially independent mechanisms: fragile homeostatic control and gene expression instability in a large set of regulatory cell surface molecules.
ISSN:1521-6616
1521-7035
DOI:10.1016/j.clim.2007.12.002