title: Investigations of the lymphokine system in elderly individuals.
abstract: Elderly people are at risk from an increased incidence of infections. Therefore we have studied the correlation between the production of several immunological parameters such as interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), interferon-alpha-2 (IFN-alpha-2), interleukin-2 (IL-2), soluble interleukin-2 receptors (sIL-2R) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) in young controls of 25-34 years old and old individuals with a minimum age of 65 years. All persons were selected according to the basic concept of the 'Senieur protocol'. Heparinized blood was taken and cultured in the whole-blood assay. The determination of all cytokines in the supernatants of stimulated cultures was done by the ELISA technique. We found significantly decreased levels of sIL-2R and IFN-alpha-2 after stimulation, whereas the values of IFN-gamma and IL-2 showed no significant difference between elderly and young persons. The values of IL-6 showed a distinct trend towards an increased synthesis for the elderly. We also studied the lymphocyte subpopulations T4 and T8 by flow cytometry. Elderly individuals showed a significantly increased T4/T8 ratio, caused by a slightly but not significantly decreased level of T8 cells. These results show that the elderly have decreased values of some immunological parameters such as IFN-alpha-2 and sIL-2R, which might explain an increased susceptibility of elderly individuals to bacterial and viral infections.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, University of Lübeck Medical School, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sindermann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kruse
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Frercks
authors.forename: R M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Schütz
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kirchner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology*; D001772:Blood Cell Count; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007239:Infections / Q000503:physiopathology; D007249:Inflammation / Q000503:physiopathology; D007372:Interferons / Q000096:biosynthesis; D007376:Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D008222:Lymphokines / Q000502:physiology*; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2 / Q000096:biosynthesis; D012016:Reference Values; D012307:Risk Factors; D012995:Solubility
chemical_list: D007376:Interleukin-2; D015850:Interleukin-6; D008222:Lymphokines; D015375:Receptors, Interleukin-2; D007372:Interferons