Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Oct;35(5):1521-30.
doi: 10.1007/s11357-012-9455-1. Epub 2012 Jul 19.

Aging affects the proportions of T and B cells in a group of elderly men in a developing country--a pilot study from Pakistan

Iftikhar Alam  1 , David Goldeck, Anis Larbi, Graham Pawelec
Affiliations

Aging affects the proportions of T and B cells in a group of elderly men in a developing country--a pilot study from Pakistan

Iftikhar Alam et al. Age (Dordr). 2013 Oct.

Abstract

Immune status is different in the elderly and the young, but whether age-associated differences are similar in developing and industrialized countries is unclear. To approach this question, peripheral blood immune cell phenotypes were analyzed by polychromatic flow cytometry in 50 young and 50 elderly men in a pilot study in a rural area of Pakistan. As a group, the elderly had a significantly lower CD4:CD8 ratio, a lower percentage of CD8+ naïve T cells, and significantly higher percentage of late-differentiated memory cells than the young. No age-associated differences were seen in B cells or NK cells. CD8+ cells as a percentage of CD3+ T cells were positively associated with plasma CRP levels but not other factors. We conclude that there are differences between the peripheral immune cell phenotypes of young and elderly Pakistani men and that these seem broadly similar to those more extensively documented in industrialized countries, despite the marked societal, nutritional, and many other differences in these populations.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Percentages of CD4+ and CD8+ cells in young (white bars) and elderly (black bars) and average CD4:CD8 ratios
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Distribution of CD28+CD27+, CD28−CD27−, CD45RO+CD27−, CD45RO−CD27+, CD45RA+CD27+, CD45RA−CD27−, CD45RO+CD28−, CD45RO−CD28+, CD45RA+CD28+, CD45RA−CD28− cells within the CD8+ subset in young (white bars) and elderly (black bars)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Distribution of CD28+CD27+, CD28−CD27−, CD45RO+CD27−, CD45RO−CD27+, CD45RA+CD27+, CD45RA−CD27−, CD45RO+CD28−, CD45RO−CD28+, CD45RA+CD28+, CD45RA−CD28− cells within CD4+ cells in young (white bars) and elderly (black bars)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Distribution of CD27+CD28+KLRG1−CD57−, CD27−CD28−KLRG1+CD57+ cells within CD8+ (a), CD4+ (b), and Tregs in young (white bars) and elderly (black bars)
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Distribution of B, IgD+CD27−, IgD−CD27+, and NK cells in young (white bars) and elderly (black bars)
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Correlation analysis of age with CD4+ and CD8+ cells and their subsets
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Agematsu K, Hokibara S, Nagumo H, Komiyama A. CD27: a memory B-cell marker. Immunol Today. 2000;21:204–206. doi: 10.1016/S0167-5699(00)01605-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Akbar AN, Terry L, Timmas A, Beverley PCL, Janossy G. Loss of CD45R and gain of UCHLI reactivity is a feature of primed T cells. J Immunol. 1988;140:2171–2178. - PubMed
    1. Akbar AN, Salmon M, Janossy G. The synergy between naive and memory T cells during activation. Immunol Today. 1991;12:184–188. doi: 10.1016/0167-5699(91)90050-4. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Akbar AN, Beverley PC, Salmon M. Will telomere erosion lead to a loss of T-cell memory? Nat Rev Immunol. 2004;4:737–743. doi: 10.1038/nri1440. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alam I, Larbi A, Pawelec G, Paracha PI. Relationship between anthropometric variables and nutrient intake in apparently healthy male elderly individuals: a study from Pakistan. Nutr J. 2011;10:111. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-10-111. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

  NODES
Project 1
twitter 2