Immunological aspects of age-related diseases

The proportion of elderly people rises in the developed countries. The increased susceptibility of the elderly to infectious diseases is caused by immune dysfunction, especially T cell functional decline. Age-related hematopoietic stem cells deviate from lymphoid lineage to myeloid lineage. Thymus shrinks early in life, which is followed by the decline of naïve T cells. T-cell receptor repertoire diversity declines by aging, which is caused by cytomegalovirus-driven T cell clonal expansion. Functional decline of B cell induces antibody affinity declines by aging. Many effector functions including phagocytosis of myeloid cells are down regulated by aging. The studies of aging of myeloid cells have some controversial results. Although M1 macrophages have been shown to be replaced by anti-inflammatory (M2) macrophages by advanced age, many human studies showed that pro-inflammatory cytokines are elevated in older human. To solve this discrepancy here we divide age-related pathological changes into two categories. One is an aging of immune cell itself. Second is involvement of immune cells to age-related pathological changes. Cellular senescence and damaged cells in aged tissue recruit pro-inflammatory M1 macrophages, which produce pro-inflammatory cytokines and proceed to age-related diseases. Underlying biochemical and metabolic studies will open nutritional treatment.