title: Immunophenotyping and T-cell proliferative capacity in a healthy aged population.
abstract: The age-related decline of immunological functions is well established but it remains largely unknown which specific changes are related to disease. We analyzed peripheral blood lymphocytes of 42 healthy elderly as well as 24 healthy young subjects from southern Brazil. No differences in phytohemagglutinin-induced proliferation and CD4:CD8 ratio were found between the subjects. However, CD4 expression (considering mean fluorescence intensity) was found upregulated in elderly subjects. No changes in activation molecules CD25, CD28, CD69 and CD95 were observed. A reduced proportion of naive (CD45RA+) T cells was found in the elderly compared to young subjects. No changes in adhesion molecule expression (CD11c and CD31) were observed. However, the frequencies of CD49d-positive cells, as well as expression of CD62L, were increased in the eldery subjects. We further described two subgroups of eldery subjects with an immunological risk profile defined by lower CD4:CD8 ratio and reduced proliferative response to mitogens. These data suggest that healthy aging is associated with intact T-cell proliferation and some compensatory immunophenotypical changes.
authors: Departamento de Genética, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
authors: Alessandra
authors: A
authors: Peres
authors: Moisés
authors: M
authors: Bauer
authors: Ivana Beatrice
authors: IB
authors: da Cruz
authors: Nance Beyer
authors: NB
authors: Nardi
authors: José Artur Bogo
authors: JA
authors: Chies
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology* / Q000502:physiology*; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000378:metabolism; D001938:Brazil; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016176:T-Lymphocyte Subsets / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD