Open AccessAge‐related increase in the fraction of CD27 − CD4 + T cells and IL‐4 production as a feature of CD4 + T cell differentiation in vivo
Author(s) -
NIJHUIS E.W. P.,
REMARQUE E. J.,
HINLOOPEN B.,
POUWKRAAN T.,
LIER R. A. W.,
LIGTHART G. J.,
NAGELKERKEN L.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
clinical & experimental immunology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.329
H-Index - 135
eISSN - 1365-2249
pISSN - 0009-9104
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2249.1994.tb06061.x
Subject(s) - phytohaemagglutinin , cd28 , immunology , ageing , biology , t cell , cd8 , endocrinology , microbiology and biotechnology , immune system , genetics
SUMMARY The influence of ageing on phenotype and function of CD4 + T cells was studied by comparing young (19‐28 years of age) and aged (75 84 years of age) donors that were selected using the SENIEUR protocol to exclude underlying disease. An age‐related increase was observed in the relative number of memory cells, not only on the basis of a decreased CO45RA and increased CD45RO expression, but also on the basis of a decrease in the fraction of CD27 + CD4 + T cells. Our observation that the absolute number of CD45RO + CD4 + T cells was increased, while absolute numbers of CD27‐CD4 + T cells remained unchanged in aged donors, indicates that the latter subset does not merely reflect the size of the CD45RO+ CD4+ T cell pool. The increased fraction of memory cells in the aged was functionally reflected in an increased IL‐4 production and T cell proliferation, when cells were activated with the combination of anli‐CD2 and anti‐CD28, whereas lL‐2 production was comparable between both groups. No differences were observed with respect to proliferative T cell responses or IL‐2 production using plate‐bound anti‐CD3 or phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). The observation that IL‐4 production correlated with the fraction of memory cells in young donors but not in aged donors suggests different functional characteristics of this subset in aged donors.