Aging and the immune system

Gorczynski R. M., TERZİOĞLU M. E.

INTERNATIONAL UROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGY, vol.40, no.4, pp.1117-1125, 2008 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier identifier

  • Publication Type: Article / Review
  • Volume: 40 Issue: 4
  • Publication Date: 2008
  • Doi Number: 10.1007/s11255-008-9412-1
  • Journal Name: INTERNATIONAL UROLOGY AND NEPHROLOGY
  • Journal Indexes: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • Page Numbers: pp.1117-1125
  • Keywords: Immunosenescence, Aging, Inflammation, Immunoregulation, REGULATORY T-CELLS, AGE-RELATED-CHANGES, METHIONINE SULFOXIDE REDUCTASE, OXIDATIVE STRESS, LIFE-SPAN, TGF-BETA, 1,25-DIHYDROXYVITAMIN D-3, DIETARY RESTRICTION, CYTOKINE PRODUCTION, DENDRITIC CELLS
  • Akdeniz University Affiliated: Yes

Abstract

Aging is associated with many physiological changes in a variety of organ systems. Nevertheless, considerable interest has centred on the possibility that age-related immunological changes may play a key "master" role in regulating many, if not all, subsequent events. A growing body of data, some of it highlighted in this review, supports the notion that host resistance in general is changed in both a qualitative and quantitative manner with age, though the biochemical mechanism(s) underlying such changes are not unique to the immune system per se. Moreover, interventions designed to explore treatments which may reverse some or all of those age-related changes have pointed out a fundamentally important role for nutrition, and the way(s) in which this impacts on host resistance mechanism(s), as having a hitherto unappreciated importance in immunosenescence in general.