Fading immune protection in old age: vaccination in the elderly.
The function of the immune system declines with age, leading to an increased occurrence and severity of infectious diseases and a decreased response to vaccines. As the thymus gradually loses its ability to replenish the population of naïve T cells, the memory and effector T cells increase in number and dominate the repertoire. The changes in the naïve and memory T cell pool that occur with ageing in man are discussed here, along with a brief update of the knowledge of B cell populations in the elderly.
Grubeck-Loebenstein
B
B
Institute for Biomedical Aging Research, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Rennweg 10, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria. beatrix.grubeck@oeaw.ac.at
D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000375:Aging / Q000276:immunology*; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D007156:Immunologic Memory / Q000276:immunology*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D014611:Vaccination