Age-associated alteration in naive and memory Th17 cell response in humans

초록

Th17 cells produce IL-17 that plays an important role in host defense. However, little is known about whether aging affects human Th17 cells. Here we demonstrated that healthy elderly people (age >= 65) had a decreased frequency of IL-17-producing cells in memory CD4(+) T cells compared to healthy young people (age <= 40) while both groups had similar frequencies of IFN-gamma-producing cells in the same memory cell subset as measured by flow cytometry. In contrast, the healthy elderly had increased differentiation of IL-17-producing effector cells but not IFN-gamma-producing cells from naive CD4(+) T cells compared to the healthy young. The results of ELISA also showed similar findings with increased IL-17 production from naive CD4(+) T cells and decreased IL-17 production from memory CD4(+) T cells in the elderly compared to the young. These findings indicate that aging differentially affects naive and memory Th17 cell responses in humans. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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