Search results for "senescence."
showing 10 items of 335 documents
How Can We Improve the Vaccination Response in Older People? Part II: Targeting Immunosenescence of Adaptive Immunity Cells.
2022
The number of people that are 65 years old or older has been increasing due to the improvement in medicine and public health. However, this trend is not accompanied by an increase in quality of life, and this population is vulnerable to most illnesses, especially to infectious diseases. Vaccination is the best strategy to prevent this fact, but older people present a less efficient response, as their immune system is weaker due mainly to a phenomenon known as immunosenescence. The adaptive immune system is constituted by two types of lymphocytes, T and B cells, and the function and fitness of these cell populations are affected during ageing. Here, we review the impact of ageing on T and B …
B CELL CHANGES IN AGING
2014
The aging of the immune system is a gradual and dynamic process that modifies some immunological functions. These changes are known as “immunosenescence” that have a great impact on immune performance in late life, contributing to the decreased ability of the elderly people to respond to emerging pathogens and to the decreased responsiveness to vaccinations. It is known that the adaptive immune functions are affected in the aged. In particular, with aging, the acquired compartment of the immune system shows significant modifications in both T and B cell branches. Thus, the adaptive immune response of elderly people is qualitatively and quantitatively reduced when compared to that observed i…
Palermo-2010 conference on biogerontology
2011
We, as the guest editors, are pleased to introduce this special issue of Biogerontology, which is the outcome from the 7th European Congress of Biogerontology, held from 14th to 17th October, 2010 in Palermo, Italy. The thematic aim of the Palermo-conference was to get an overview of the present state of research in the development of effective therapies to postpone or treat human ageing, focusing on predictive medicine and prevention of age-related diseases, immunosenescence, longevity, model systems, ageing and wellness, and vaccination in the elderly. Understanding the determinants of ageing in humans in relation to the living environment and the individual life history was the additiona…
Immunity and Aging
2016
In the elderly, many alterations of innate and acquired immunity have been described and viewed as deleterious, hence the term immunosenescence. Immunosenescence is a complex process involving multiple reorganizational and developmentally regulated changes, rather than simple unidirectional decline of complete immune function. On the other hand, some immunological parameters are commonly notably reduced in the elderly, and reciprocally good function is tightly correlated to health status. Whereas innate immunity is relatively well preserved in elderly, acquired immunity is more susceptible due to both the functional decline associated with the passage of time, and to antigen burden to which…
Biomarkers of aging
2010
Aging is a complex process that negatively impacts the development of the different systems and its ability to function. Moreover, the Aging rate in humans is not the same, principally due to genetic heterogeneity and environmental factors. The aging rate is measured as the decline of functional capacity and stress resistance. Therefore, several attempts have been made to analyse the individual age, ( so-called biological age) compared to chronological age. The biomarkers of aging are age-related body function or composition, these markers aim to assess the biological age and predict the onset of age-related diseases and/or residual lifetime. Such biomarkers should help in one hand to chara…
Diet and Immunosenescence
2013
Ageing is a systemic condition leading to a gradual loss of molecular and cellular fidelity. A feature of ageing is immunosenescence, consisting in several modifications that increase morbidity and mortality in elderly. Environment, genetic background, immune system, and intestinal microbiota play a fundamental role in immunosenescence. The development of a chronic, low-grade, inflammatory status, known as “inflamm-ageing,” is a typical aspect of immunosenescence mostly due to the pro-inflammatory cytokine production linked to the chronic antigenic load. Nutrition can act on ageing, immunity, and health in general. Unbalanced diet with an insufficient intake of micro- and macronutrient and …
Phenotypic Aspects of Longevity
2019
Centenarians are individuals who live over the average life span characteristic of their population. The growing number of old people worldwide makes it necessary to identify a good strategy to reach healthy ageing and avoid or delay age-related diseases. The longevity phenotype is the result of a positive combination between genetic, epigenetic, stochastic and lifestyle factors. So, the analysis of all the known parameters that can influence these single elements or their interaction can give new possible elements to delineate a sort of longevity signature. Starting from the easiest biomarkers as the haematochemical values and reaching the study of molecular and cellular components, as the…
Senescence and longevity : from physiological mechanisms to evolutionary processes : studies in birds and mammals
2012
There is an incredible diversity of lifespan in the animal kingdom ranging from a few days for small gastrotrichs worms to several hundred of years for some bivalves or tortoises. This amazing diversity has long questioned biology researchers. The growing interest in the phenomenon of aging, mainly due to the increase in life expectancy in humans, has questioned researchers on processes that determine patterns of longevity and ageing. On the one hand, biomedical and biogerontological studies helped describe numerous cellular and physiological mechanisms related to aging. Among these mechanisms, oxidative stress has been identified as playing a major role, through life-time accumulation of d…
Induction of tumor peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells under serum-free conditions by mature human dendritic cells
2000
Tumor vaccination strategies using antigen-pulsed dendritic cells (DC) are currently under development. We established an in vitro system using cultured DC from HLA-typed volunteers for the induction of tumor peptide-specific CD8+ T cells. The strength and specificity of the resulting CTL responses were investigated. For stimulation of syngeneic CD8+ T cells two well-defined DC populations were generated: CD1a+ immature DC cultured in the presence of GM-CSF and IL-4 and mature CD83+ DC generated by additional stimulation with a cytokine cocktail. Stimulations were performed under serum-free conditions and in the absence of exogenous cytokines. Analysis of T cell responses showed that mature…
Role of TLR Polymorphisms in Immunosenescence
2009
Innate immunity provides a first line of host defense against infection through microbial recognition and killing while simultaneously activating a clonotypic immune response. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are principal mediators of rapid microbial recognition and function mainly by detection of pathogen-associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) that do not exist in the host. The different members of TLRs recognize several PAMPs, such as peptidoglycan for TLR2, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) for TLR4, flagellin for TLR5, and CpGDNA-repeats for TLR9. Several endogenous ligands of various TLRs have been also identified in the host. In this chapter, we describe the involvement of TLR-4 polymorphisms in imm…