An Introduction on the Old Age and the Aging of the Immune System
The immune system is vital for the well-being and general health of all individuals, especially elderly, while like other systems it undergoes several changes during aging. Aging influence not only the renewal potential of this system but also the element
- PDF / 44,714 Bytes
- 2 Pages / 504.57 x 720 pts Page_size
- 72 Downloads / 176 Views
An Introduction on the Old Age and the Aging of the Immune System Mohamad Bagher Eslami
1.1
Aging and the Immune System
The period of old age is the last part of an individual’s life which follows the period of middle age and terminates by death. The transition from previous periods of life into the period of old age is relatively fast in some people, while it is very slow in others. Genetics and environmental factors are the forces determining the pace of this transition. No biomarker in blood or tissues has so far been recognized to definitely indicate the onset of the period of old age. However, telomere length has been considered a possible biomarker of aging (Sanders and Newman 2013). Telomeres are nucleotide sequences in both ends of the each chromosome which protect the chromosomes from erosion and shortening. By advancing age after each cell division, the telomeres’ ends become shorter (Hohensinner et al. 2012; Goronzy et al. 2006; Sanders and Newman 2013). The immune system is very vital for the wellbeing and general health of every individual by providing a state of immunity. The immune system in aged people has been the focus of several groups of researchers. Their findings indicate that
M.B. Eslami, PhD Immunology Division, Pathobiology Department, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran e-mail: [email protected]
the immune system is not immune from becoming ineffectual owing to advancing age (Rymkiewicz et al. 2012; Weiskopf et al. 2009). Therefore, the immune system is not a self-governing system which develops and functions independently of other systems in our bodies (Rymkiewicz et al. 2012). In general, decrease in the physiological potential of a system affects the optimum function of other systems. B and T lymphocytes, the most vital cells of the adaptive immune system, undergo replication upon each specific immune response. Therefore, shortening of the telomeres in the activated B and T cell populations is presumably far greater than the cell population of the innate immune system such as macrophage and dendritic cells (Weng 2006; Kaszubowska 2008). Thus, if we accept the view that telomere shortening is a far more important factor than the other factors affecting the aging of systems, the adaptive immune system seems to be one of the forerunners influenced by aging, whereas the innate immune system keeps its potentials for a longer period (Kaszubowska 2008). The immune system encompasses a large number of different cell types and molecules. The communication between different cell types in the immune system, which are often far apart, is dependent on a complex network of cytokines. The aging can affect any element of this highly complex system which in turn greatly influences all parts of the immune system (Huang et al. 2005).
A. Massoud, N. Rezaei (eds.), Immunology of Aging, DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-39495-9_1, © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
1
M.B. Eslami
2
1.2
Research on Aging Immune System
There has recently been a growing body of l
Data Loading...
