title: Income and Markers of Immunological Cellular Aging.
abstract: Socioeconomic disadvantage may contribute to poor health through immune-related biological mechanisms. We examined the associations between socioeconomic status, as measured by annual household income, and T-cell markers of aging, including the ratios of CD4 and CD8 effector cells to naïve cells (E/N ratio) and the CD4/CD8 T-cell ratio. We hypothesized that participants with a lower income would have higher E/N ratios and lower CD4/CD8 ratios compared with participants with a higher income, and that these associations would be partially mediated by elevated cytomegalovirus (CMV) IgG antibody levels, a virus implicated in aging and clonal expansion of T cells.
  
  
  
  Data were from 79 individuals who participated in the population-based Detroit Neighborhood Health Study. We used linear regression to quantify the association between a $10,000 decrease in income and each ratio outcome.
  
  
  
  After adjustment for age, sex, race, smoking, medication use, and lifetime history of mental health conditions, lower income was associated with a 0.41 (95% confidence interval = 0.09-0.72) log-unit increase in the CD4 E/N ratio and a 0.20 (95% confidence interval = 0.02-0.39) log-unit increase in the CD8 E/N ratio. CMV immunoglobulin G antibody level partially mediated these associations.
  
  
  
  Our study suggests that low socioeconomic status is associated with immunological aging as measured by the E/N ratio and that impaired immune control of CMV may partially mediate these associations.
authors.affiliation: From the Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, and Carolina Population Center (Aiello, Feinstein), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; CUNY School of Public Health, Hunter College (Dowd), City University of New York, New York, New York; Department of Internal Medicine II (Pawelec, Derhovanessian), Centre for Medical Research, University of Tubingen, Tubingen, Germany; Boston University School of Public Health (Galea), Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Psychology and Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (Uddin), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois; Department of Molecular and Integrative Physiology (Wildman) and Joseph J. Zilber School of Public Health (Simanek), University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
authors.forename: Allison E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Aiello
authors.forename: Lydia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Feinstein
authors.forename: Jennifer B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Dowd
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pawelec
authors.forename: Evelyna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Derhovanessian
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Galea
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Uddin
authors.forename: Derek E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Wildman
authors.forename: Amanda M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Simanek
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000914:Antibodies, Viral / Q000097:blood*; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes; D016922:Cellular Senescence / Q000502:physiology*; D003587:Cytomegalovirus / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007074:Immunoglobulin G / Q000097:blood; D007182:Income / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018655:Lymphocyte Count; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012923:Social Class
chemical_list: D000914:Antibodies, Viral; D007074:Immunoglobulin G