Mechanisms of immunosenescence: lessons from models of accelerated immune aging
Year: 2012
Type: article
Abstract: With increasing age, the ability of the adaptive immune system to respond to vaccines and to protect from infection declines. In parallel, the production of inflammatory mediators increases. While cross-sectional studies have been successful in defining age-dependent immunological phenotypes, studies of accelerated immune aging in human subpopulations have been instrumental in obtaining mechanistic insights. The immune system depends on its regenerative capacity; however, the T cell repertoire, once established, is relatively robust to aging and only decompensates when additionally stressed. Such stressors include chronic infections such as CMV and HIV, even when viral replication is controlled, and autoimmune diseases. Reduced regenerative capacity, chronic immune activation in the absence of cell exhaustion, T cell memory inflation, and accumulation of highly potent effector T cells in these patients synergize to develop an immune phenotype that is characteristic of the elderly. Studies of accelerated immune aging in autoimmune diseases have identified an unexpected link to chronic DNA damage responses that are known to be important in aging, but so far had not been implicated in immune aging.
Language: English
Topic: T-cell and B-cell Immunology
Subfield: Immunology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: CD8 T Cells in Rheumatoid Arthritis, G1556766700, G1809139246, G1911962955, G2540523102, G3413626015, G366100091, Oligoclonal T Cell Expansion and Rheumatoid Arthritis, G429955531, G442201000, G464051429, G6170789353, G6241365711, G64106078, Ocular Disease in Giant Cell Arteritis, Interactions Between Inflammation, Oxidant Stress and Cardiovascular Disease, Vaccination and infection: indicators of immunological health and responsiveness, The NOTCH Signaling Pathway in Large Vessel Vasculitis, Vaccine and Infection Induced Immunity in the Young and Aged, G971417677
OpenAlex ID: W1490902242