title: Reduced numbers of plasmacytoid dendritic cells in aged blood donors.
abstract: Dendritic cells (DC) play essential functions in both innate and adaptive immune responses. Peripheral blood DCs are divided into two major subsets, named conventional DC (cDC) and plasmacytoid DC (pDC), which play specific functions in the immune response. The absolute numbers of DCs (and their subsets) in peripheral blood may suffer variations due to physiological or pathological reasons, and therefore the enumeration of DC subsets in blood samples may be of clinical interest. However, to date this enumeration has produced controversial rather than consistent results. Here, using a two-tube platform approach, peripheral blood DCs have been enumerated in samples from healthy blood donors aged 18-65 years old. The results obtained showed a significant age-related decrease in pDC numbers, whilst cDC numbers remained unaltered. The different protocols used to define and enumerate DC subsets from blood samples may account for the controversial results reported before, thus emphasizing the importance of a general consensus to enumerate DCs. Reduced pDC numbers may be related to the higher susceptibility to infection and deficient response to vaccination often observed in aged individuals.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Immunobiology for Research and Applications to Diagnosis, Blood and Tissue Bank, Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Institut Investigació Germans Trias i Pujol, 08916 Badalona, Spain.
authors.forename: Begoña
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Pérez-Cabezas
authors.forename: Mar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Naranjo-Gómez
authors.forename: Marco A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Juan R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Grífols
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pujol-Borrell
authors.forename: Francesc E
authors.initials: FE
authors.lastname: Borràs
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D001782:Blood Donors; D002452:Cell Count; D003713:Dendritic Cells / Q000276:immunology / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged