title: [Immune dysfunctions in aging (author's transl)].
abstract: The frequency of certain infectious diseases, autoimmune disorders and neoplasias reveals a correlation to age. Therefore, the potential pathogentic role of a series of humoral and cellular immune functions is discussed. The concentrations of immunoglobulins increase with age. Though the humoral immune response appears to be rather undisturbed, there is a definite and progressive reduction of delayed type hypersensitivity reactions in the elderly. Based upon own investigations the significance of cell-inherent factors on age-dependence of cell-mediated immunity is underlined, consisting of an age-correlated alteration of a T-cell subpopulation The increasing morbidity or mortality of infectious diseases, i.e. tuberculosis, salmonellosis and viral hepatitis in the older age-group, additionally, may be explained by a reduced cell-mediated immunity known to play an important role in immune defense mechanisms particulary in these diseases.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D000917:Antibody Formation; D001327:Autoimmune Diseases / Q000276:immunology; D002452:Cell Count; D005260:Female; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007111:Immunity, Cellular; D007153:Immunologic Deficiency Syndromes / Q000276:immunology; D008213:Lymphocyte Activation; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000276:immunology; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000276:immunology
vernacular_title: Immundysfunktionen in Alter.