Articles

Does aging affect the immune status? A comparative analysis in 300 healthy volunteers from France, Austria and Spain

As the European population is getting older, there is growing need in scientific data on how to achieve healthy and successful aging. A decline in immune function with age is unanimously supported by many epid...

Authors: Marie-Paule Vasson, Marie-Chantal Farges, Nicolas Goncalves-Mendes, Jérémie Talvas, Josep Ribalta, Brigitte Winklhofer-Roob, Edmond Rock and Adrien Rossary

Telomere length dynamics in human memory T cells specific for viruses causing acute or latent infections

Declining telomere length (TL) is associated with T cell senescence. While TL in naïve and memory T cells declines with increasing age, there is limited data on TL dynamics in virus-specific memory CD4⁺ T cells i...

Authors: Joel M O'Bryan, Marcia Woda, Mary Co, Anuja Mathew and Alan L Rothman

Impaired specific CD8 T cell response with aging is not due to decreased expression of CD90 on TCR transgenic T cells

CD90 (Thy-1) is a small glycoprotein that is particularly abundant on the surface of mouse thymocytes and peripheral T cells, and is often used as a marker in adoptive transfer experiments to distinguish donor...

Authors: Jiu Jiang, Erin Fisher and Donna M Murasko

Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIR) haplogroups A and B track with Natural Killer Cells and Cytokine Profile in Aged Subjects: Observations from Octo/Nonagenarians in the Belfast Elderly Longitudinal Free-living Aging STudy (BELFAST)

Natural Killer Cells (NK) play an important role in detection and elimination of virus-infected, damaged or cancer cells. NK cell function is guided by expression of Killer Immunoglobulin-like Receptors (KIRs)...

Authors: Irene Maeve Rea, Lynn D Maxwell, Susan E McNerlan, H Denis Alexander, Martin D Curran, Derek Middleton and Owen A Ross

Dose response kinetics of CD8 lymphocytes from young animals transfused into old animals and challenged with influenza

Transfusion of autologous leukocytes after prolonged storage has been proposed as a means of rejuvenating the immune system of older individuals. The rationale for this approach is that age related immune decl...

Authors: Richard Aspinall, Sheila Govind, Antonio Lapenna and Pierre Olivier Lang

Seropositivity for CMV and IL-6 levels are associated with grip strength and muscle size in the elderly

Sarcopenia is an important cause of morbidity and mortality in older adults, with immunosenescence and inflammation being possible underlying mechanisms. We investigated the relationship between latent cytomeg...

Authors: Alixe HM Kilgour, Charlotte Firth, Rowan Harrison, Paul Moss, Mark E Bastin, Joanna M Wardlaw, Ian J Deary and John M Starr

Immunological and nutritional factors in elderly people in low-level care and their association with mortality

This study examines associations between markers of nutritional status and lymphocyte subsets and seeks to determine if lymphocyte profile is predictive of survival in elderly Australians residing in aged care...

Authors: Julie L Woods, Sandra Iuliano-Burns and Karen Z Walker

The interaction between gut microbiota and age-related changes in immune function and inflammation

Intestinal microbiota and gut immune systems interact each other, maintaining a condition of homeostasis in the context of the intestinal habitat. However, both systems undergo modifications in elderly, thus a...

Authors: Thea Magrone and Emilio Jirillo

Association of cytomegalovirus and other pathogens with frailty and diabetes mellitus, but not with cardiovascular disease and mortality in psycho-geriatric patients; a prospective cohort study

Studies about associations of infections with herpes viruses and other pathogens, such as Chlamydia pneumoniae (CP) and Helicobacter pylori (HP) with cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes mellitus (DM), frailty ...

Authors: Michiel B Haeseker, Evelien Pijpers, Nicole HTM Dukers-Muijrers, Patty Nelemans, Christian JPA Hoebe, Cathrien A Bruggeman, Annelies Verbon and Valère J Goossens

Cytokine and chemokine responses to helminth and protozoan parasites and to fungus and mite allergens in neonates, children, adults, and the elderly

In rural sub-Saharan Africa, endemic populations are often infected concurrently with several intestinal and intravascular helminth and protozoan parasites. A specific, balanced and, to an extent, protective i...

Authors: Christian J Lechner, Karl Komander, Jana Hegewald, Xiangsheng Huang, Richard G Gantin, Peter T Soboslay, Abram Agossou, Meba Banla and Carsten Köhler

Enhancement of mitochondrial biogenesis with polyphenols: combined effects of resveratrol and equol in human endothelial cells

Emerging evidence suggests that combinatorial action of numerous biologically active compounds may be a valuable source in a variety of therapeutic applications. Several nutraceuticals have demonstrated to aug...

Authors: Sergio Davinelli, Nadia Sapere, Manuela Visentin, Davide Zella and Giovanni Scapagnini

Expression of calpain-calpastatin system (CCS) member proteins in human lymphocytes of young and elderly individuals; pilot baseline data for the CALPACENT project

Ubiquitous system of regulatory, calcium-dependent, cytoplasmic proteases – calpains – and their endogenous inhibitor – calpastatin – is implicated in the proteolytic regulation of activation, proliferation, a...

Authors: Anna Mikosik, Jerzy Foerster, Aleksandra Jasiulewicz, Joanna Frąckowiak, Giuseppina Colonna-Romano, Matteo Bulati, Silvio Buffa, Adriana Martorana, Calogero Caruso, Ewa Bryl and Jacek M Witkowski

Age-associated alterations in γδ T-cells are present predominantly in individuals infected with Cytomegalovirus

Despite the common perception that latent Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is usually symptom-free, emerging epidemiological evidence suggests that it may in fact be associated with higher mortality over extend...

Authors: Kilian Wistuba-Hamprecht, Daniela Frasca, Bonnie Blomberg, Graham Pawelec and Evelyna Derhovanessian

Reactivation of immune responses against Mycobacterium tuberculosis by boosting with the CpG oligomer in aged mice primarily vaccinated with Mycobacterium bovis BCG

Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette Guérin (BCG) vaccine, which has been inoculated to more than one billion people world-wide, has significant effect in preventing tuberculous meningitis and miliary tuberculos...

Authors: Keiichi Taniguchi, Takemasa Takii, Saburo Yamamoto, Jun-ichi Maeyama, Sumiko Iho, Mitsuo Maruyama, Narushi Iizuka, Yuriko Ozeki, Sohkichi Matsumoto, Tomohiro Hasegawa, Yuuji Miyatake, Saotomo Itoh and Kikuo Onozaki

NF-κB pathway activators as potential ageing biomarkers: targets for new therapeutic strategies

Chronic inflammation is a major biological mechanism underpinning biological ageing process and age-related diseases. Inflammation is also the key response of host defense against pathogens and tissue injury. ...

Authors: Carmela R Balistreri, Giuseppina Candore, Giulia Accardi, Giuseppina Colonna-Romano and Domenico Lio

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) in dental and oral surgery: from the wound healing to bone regeneration

Platelet-rich plasma (PRP) is a new approach to tissue regeneration and it is becoming a valuable adjunct to promote healing in many procedures in dental and oral surgery, especially in aging patients. PRP der...

Authors: Antonino Albanese, Maria E Licata, Bianca Polizzi and Giuseppina Campisi

Proinflammatory profile of in vitro monocytes in the ageing is affected by lymphocytes presence

Aging is associated with complex and constant remodeling of the immune function, resulting in an increasing susceptibility to infection and others diseases. The infections caused by Gram-negative microorganism...

Authors: Karen Henriette Pinke, Bruno Calzavara, Patricia Freitas Faria, Magda Paula Pereira do Nascimento, James Venturini and Vanessa Soares Lara

Septic shock in older people: a prospective cohort study

Septic shock is the first cause of death in Intensive Care Units. Despite experimental data showing increased inflammatory response of aged animals following infection, the current accepted hypothesis claims t...

Authors: Fabiano Pinheiro da Silva, Fernando Godinho Zampieri, Denise Frediani Barbeiro, Hermes Vieira Barbeiro, Alessandra Carvalho Goulart, Francisco Torggler Filho, Irineu Tadeu Velasco, Luiz Monteiro da Cruz Neto, Heraldo Possolo de Souza and Marcel Cerqueira César Machado

Sex, gender and immunosenescence: a key to understand the different lifespan between men and women?

Authors: Calogero Caruso, Giulia Accardi, Claudia Virruso and Giuseppina Candore

Slower immune system aging in women versus men in the Japanese population

Gender-related differences in humans are commonly observed in behaviour, physical activity, disease, and lifespan. However, the notion that age-related changes in the immune system differ between men and women...

Authors: Katsuiku Hirokawa, Masanori Utsuyama, Yoshio Hayashi, Masanobu Kitagawa, Takashi Makinodan and Tamas Fulop

Passive anti-amyloid immunotherapy in Alzheimer's disease: What are the most promising targets?

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common dementia in the industrialized world, with prevalence rates well over 30% in the over 80-years-old population. The dementia causes enormous costs to the social healt...

Authors: Jens Moreth, Chrystelle Mavoungou and Katharina Schindowski

Bone marrow T cells from the femur are similar to iliac crest derived cells in old age and represent a useful tool for studying the aged immune system

CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells reside in the human bone marrow (BM) and show a heightened activation state. However, only small sample sizes are available from sources such as the iliac crest. Larger samples can be obtain...

Authors: Theresa Pritz, Katja Landgraf-Rauf, Dietmar Herndler-Brandstetter, Rauend Rauf, Julian Lair, Robert Gassner, Birgit Weinberger, Martin Krismer and Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein

Immunosenescence and gender: a study in healthy Cubans

The progressive decline in the immune function during ageing is termed immunosenescence. Previous studies have reported differences between males and females in the distribution and cell responses of lymphocyt...

Authors: Beatriz García Verdecia, Danay Saavedra Hernández, Patricia Lorenzo-Luaces, Teresita de Jesús Badía Alvarez, Idrissa Leonard Rupalé, Zaima Mazorra Herrera, Tania Crombet Ramos and Agustín Lage Dávila

Reviewer acknowledgment

Immunity & Ageing would like to thank the following for their assistance with peer review of manuscripts for the journal in 2012.

Authors: Calogero Caruso

Stress responses, vitagenes and hormesis as critical determinants in aging and longevity: Mitochondria as a “chi”

Understanding mechanisms of aging and determinants of life span will help to reduce age-related morbidity and facilitate healthy aging. Average lifespan has increased over the last centuries, as a consequence ...

Authors: Carolin Cornelius, Rosario Perrotta, Antonio Graziano, Edward J Calabrese and Vittorio Calabrese

Effects of age on H1N1-specific serum IgG1 and IgG3 levels evaluated during the 2011–2012 influenza vaccine season

We have previously reported an age-related impairment in the serum antibody response to pandemic (p)2009 H1N1, measured by hemagglutination inhibition assay and ELISA. The present study extends these observati...

Authors: Daniela Frasca, Alain Diaz, Maria Romero, Nicholas V Mendez, Ana Marie Landin and Bonnie B Blomberg

Immunosenescence in vertebrates and invertebrates

There is an established consensus that it is primarily the adaptive arm of immunity, and the T cell subset in particular, that is most susceptible to the deleterious changes with age known as “immunosenescence...

Authors: Ludmila Müller, Tamas Fülöp and Graham Pawelec

Toll like receptor signaling in “inflammaging”: microRNA as new players

The age-related changes of immune system functions are complex phenomena incompletely understood. The acquired immune system shows a functional decline in ability to respond to new pathogens during aging, wher...

Authors: Fabiola Olivieri, Maria Rita Rippo, Francesco Prattichizzo, Lucia Babini, Laura Graciotti, Rina Recchioni and Antonio Domenico Procopio

Pinpointing beta adrenergic receptor in ageing pathophysiology: victim or executioner? Evidence from crime scenes

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) play a key role in cellular communication, allowing human cells to sense external cues or to talk each other through hormones or neurotransmitters. Research in this field ha...

Authors: Gaetano Santulli and Guido Iaccarino

Mast cells and the liver aging process

It has now ascertained that the clinical manifestations of liver disease in the elderly population reflect both the cumulative effects of longevity on the liver and the generalized senescence of the organism a...

Authors: Fabio Grizzi, Giuseppe Di Caro, Luigi Laghi, Paul Hermonat, Paolo Mazzola, Diane D Nguyen, Saba Radhi, Jose A Figueroa, Everardo Cobos, Giorgio Annoni and Maurizio Chiriva-Internati

Acute exercise decreases PTP-1B protein level and improves insulin signaling in the liver of old rats

It is now commonly accepted that chronic inflammation associated with obesity during aging induces insulin resistance in the liver. In the present study, we investigated whether the improvement in insulin sens...

Authors: Leandro Pereira de Moura, Luciana Santos Souza Pauli, Dennys Esper Cintra, Claudio Teodoro de Souza, Adelino Sanchez Ramos da Silva, Rodolfo Marinho, Maria Alice Rostom de Melo, Eduardo Rochete Ropelle and José Rodrigo Pauli

An investigation of the effects of the antioxidants, ebselen or N-acetyl cysteine on human peripheral blood mononuclear cells and T cells

The research literature has documented age-related increases in genetic damage, including oxidative DNA damage, in human T lymphocytes, in vitro and ex vivo. Such damage has the potential to interfere with the ab...

Authors: Shiva Marthandan, Paul Hyland, Graham Pawelec and Yvonne Barnett

Monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 promoter polymorphism and plasma levels in alzheimer’s disease

Neurodegenerative disorders such Alzheimer's disease (AD) are often characterized by senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangle. In addition, reactive astrogliosis, microglia activation and a chronic inflammati...

Authors: Elisa Porcellini, Manuela Ianni, Ilaria Carbone, Massimo Franceschi and Federico Licastro

Age matters:  Young T lymphocytes offer better protection from myeloma proliferation

The incidence and growth of cancer has been reported to increase with age and/or impaired T lymphocyte function.

Authors: Alexander F Glick, Yan S Song, Brian Hwang, John Lillvis, Pat Zanzonico, Camil Fuchs, Roger N Pearse, Paul Szabo and Marc E Weksler

Effects of human Toll-like receptor 1 polymorphisms on ageing

Advanced age results in crucial alterations of the innate and adaptive immune system leading to functional defects resulting in infection and chronic diseases. Toll-like receptors (TLR) recognize pathogenic st...

Authors: Peter Uciechowski, Eva Maria Oellig, Erminia Mariani, Marco Malavolta, Eugenio Mocchegiani and Lothar Rink

Increased activation and cytokine secretion in B cells stimulated with leptin in aged humans

Aging is associated chronic inflammation and autoimmunity, and increased levels of leptin. Increased levels of leptin are associated with inflammation and autoimmunity. We have recently reported that leptin ac...

Authors: Sudhir Gupta, Sudhanshu Agrawal and Sastry Gollapudi

Low heart-type fatty acid binding protein level during aging may protect down syndrome people against atherosclerosis

Aging is considered an important independent risk factor for atherosclerosis. Down syndrome people (DS) display an accelerated aging process compared to healthy subjects, anyway they are relatively resistant t...

Authors: Elena Vianello, Giada Dogliotti, Elena Dozio and Massimiliano Marco Corsi Romanelli

A novel data mining system points out hidden relationships between immunological markers in multiple sclerosis

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a multi-factorial disease, where a single biomarker unlikely can provide comprehensive information. Moreover, due to the non-linearity of biomarkers, traditional statistic is both un...

Authors: Maira Gironi, Marina Saresella, Marco Rovaris, Matilde Vaghi, Raffaello Nemni, Mario Clerici and Enzo Grossi

Early dysregulation of the memory CD8⁺ T cell repertoire leads to compromised immune responses to secondary viral infection in the aged

Virus-specific memory CD8⁺ T cells persist long after infection is resolved and are important for mediating recall responses to secondary infection. Although the number of memory T cells remains relatively consta...

Authors: Lisa M Connor, Jacob E Kohlmeier, Lynn Ryan, Alan D Roberts, Tres Cookenham, Marcia A Blackman and David L Woodland

Defective pro-IL-1β responses in macrophages from aged mice

Cytokines regulated by the inflammasome pathway have been extensively implicated in various age-related immune pathologies. We set out to elucidate the contribution of the nod-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) i...

Authors: Alejandro Ramirez, Vijay Rathinam, Katherine A Fitzgerald, Douglas T Golenbock and Anuja Mathew

Endothelial nitric oxide synthase, vascular integrity and human exceptional longevity

Aging is the sum of the deleterious changes that occur as time goes by. It is the main risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease, and aging of the vasculature is the event that most often impac...

Authors: Annibale Alessandro Puca, Albino Carrizzo, Anna Ferrario, Francesco Villa and Carmine Vecchione

Immune correlates of aging in outdoor-housed captive rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Questions remain about whether inflammation is a cause, consequence, or coincidence of aging. The purpose of this study was to define baseline immunological characteristics from blood to develop a model in rhe...

Authors: Elizabeth S Didier, Chie Sugimoto, Lisa C Bowers, Imtiaz A Khan and Marcelo J Kuroda

The discovery of how gender influences age immunological mechanisms in health and disease, and the identification of ageing gender-specific biomarkers, could lead to specifically tailored treatment and ultimately improve therapeutic success rates

The control of human health and diseases in the elderly population is becoming a challenge, since mean age and life expectation are progressively increasing as well as chronic degenerative diseases. These diso...

Authors: Anna Maria Berghella, Ida Contasta, Tiziana Del Beato and Patrizia Pellegrini

CMV and Immunosenescence: from basics to clinics

Alone among herpesviruses, persistent Cytomegalovirus (CMV) markedly alters the numbers and proportions of peripheral immune cells in infected-vs-uninfected people. Because the rate of CMV infection increases ...

Authors: Rafael Solana, Raquel Tarazona, Allison E Aiello, Arne N Akbar, Victor Appay, Mark Beswick, Jos A Bosch, Carmen Campos, Sara Cantisán, Luka Cicin-Sain, Evelyna Derhovanessian, Sara Ferrando-Martínez, Daniela Frasca, Tamas Fulöp, Sheila Govind, Beatrix Grubeck-Loebenstein…

Blood biomarkers role in acute ischemic stroke patients: higher is worse or better?

Thrombolytic therapy (TT) for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) can provoke bleeding’s complication depending on the ischemic lesion (IL) dimension. Inflammation involved in the setting of acute ischaemic stroke, is...

Authors: Aliaksei Kisialiou, Giordana Pelone, Albino Carrizzo, Giovanni Grillea, Valentina Trimarco, Marina Marino, Michelangelo Bartolo, Alessandro Marco De Nunzio, Rodolfo Grella, Alessandro Landolfi, Annibale Puca, Claudio Colonnese and Carmine Vecchione

An adjuvanted respiratory syncytial virus fusion protein induces protection in aged BALB/c mice

Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) causes significant disease in the elderly, in part, because immunosenescence impairs protective immune responses to infection in this population. Despite previous and current ...

Authors: Anu Cherukuri, Kate L Stokes, Kathryn Patton, Howard Kuo, Kaori Sakamoto, Stacie Lambert, Elizabeth Stillman, Martin L Moore and Sujin Lee

Alzheimer disease and platelets: how’s that relevant

Alzheimer Disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder worldwide, and account for 60% to 70% of all cases of progressive cognitive impairment in elderly patients. At the microscopic level distinc...

Authors: Silvia Catricala, Mauro Torti and Giovanni Ricevuti

Uremia causes premature ageing of the T cell compartment in end-stage renal disease patients

End-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients treated with renal replacement therapy (RRT) have premature immunologically aged T cells which may underlie uremia-associated immune dysfunction. The aim of this study w...

Authors: Ruud WJ Meijers, Nicolle HR Litjens, Elly A de Wit, Anton W Langerak, Ashley van der Spek, Carla C Baan, Willem Weimar and Michiel GH Betjes

Cytomegalovirus seropositivity is associated with glucose regulation in the oldest old. Results from the Leiden 85-plus Study

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection has been reported to contribute to the pathogenesis of type 1 diabetes and post-transplantation diabetes. However, CMV infection has not been evaluated as a possible risk factor...

Authors: Sijia Chen, Anton JM de Craen, Yotam Raz, Evelyna Derhovanessian, Ann Vossen CTM, Rudi Westendorp GJ, Graham Pawelec and Andrea B Maier

The LCMV gp33-specific memory T cell repertoire narrows with age

The memory response to LCMV in mice persists for months to years with only a small decrease in the number of epitope specific CD8 T cells. This long persistence is associated with resistance to lethal LCMV dis...

Authors: Adam Bunztman, Benjamin G Vincent, Harsha Krovi, Shaun Steele and Jeffrey A Frelinger