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Updated: Aug 10, 2026
Quantitative Imaging of Lineage-specific Toll-like Receptor-mediated Signaling in Monocytes and Dendritic Cells from Small Samples of Human Blood
Published on: April 16, 2012
Age-related changes in interleukin 2 responsiveness of resting and activated human mononuclear cells
E Ferrero1, A Manfredi, E Bianchi
1Istituto Scientifico San Raffaele, Cattedra di Patologia Medica V, Università di Milano, Italy.
Insights
Aging may delay immune cell activation rather than impair it. Elderly individuals showed reduced T cell proliferation in response to Interleukin-2 (IL2) after initial days, suggesting a timing issue in immune response.
Area of Science:
- Immunology
- Gerontology
- Cellular Biology
Background:
- The "T cell model" of aging-related immune decline is increasingly accepted.
- The specific impact of aging on Interleukin-2 (IL2) response remains uninvestigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between aging and the response to IL2.
- To determine if elderly individuals exhibit altered immune cell proliferation patterns.
Main Methods:
- Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from elderly and younger donors were cultured.
- Cells were stimulated with varying concentrations of recombinant IL2 (rIL2) and phytohemagglutinin (PHA).
- Proliferative capacity and IL2 receptor expression were assessed over time.
Main Results:
- PBMC from elderly donors showed comparable proliferation to younger donors initially but decreased later in culture.
- A delayed proliferative response to rIL2 and PHA was observed in elderly individuals.
- No significant difference in IL2 receptor-positive cells was found between age groups.
Conclusions:
- The findings suggest a delay in PBMC activation in older donors, not a fundamental functional impairment.
- Aging may impact the timing of immune cell responses rather than their overall capacity.
Background:
Although the "T cell model" on the immunological decline associated with aging is gaining increasing support, the relationship between response to IL2 and aging has not yet been investigated.
Methods:
Human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy elderly donors were cultured with increasing concentrations (1-1000 U/ml) of recombinant interleukin 2 (rIL2).
Results:
PBMC from older donors proliferated as much as those from younger donors until the fifth day of culture, but showed a reduced capability to proliferate in the following days (8th and 10th). Culturing PBMC with PHA we obtained the opposite result. In fact, the known depressed proliferative response of elderly people to the mitogen PHA is detectable only in the early days of culture. Furthermore, the response to rIL2 of 1% or 0.125% PHA-stimulated PBMC showed an important impairment of the proliferative rate in the elderly population with respect to younger controls, although no differences in the number of IL2 receptor-positive cells were detected. This phenomenon was demonstrable mainly in the first several days of culture.
Conclusions:
These data suggest a delay in the activation rather than a real functional impairment of PBMC from old donors.
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