Thirty elderly long-stay patients were randomly allocated to receive either placebo or dietary supplementation with vitamins A, C and E for 28 days. Nutritional status and cell-mediated immune function were assessed before and after the period of supplementation. Following vitamin supplementation, cell-mediated immune function improved as indicated by a significant increase in the absolute number of T cells (p less than 0.05), T4 subsets (p less than 0.05), T4 to T8 ratio (p less than 0.01) and the proliferation of lymphocytes in response to phytohaemagglutinin (p less than 0.01). In contrast, no significant changes were noted in the immune function of the placebo group. We conclude that supplementation with the dietary antioxidants vitamins A, C and E can improve aspects of cell-mediated immune function in elderly long-stay patients.
The production of immunoglobulins by duodenal mucosa in young and old subjects was studied. For 20 elderly people (mean age 85.3 years) and 18 young subjects (mean age 34.5 years) the amounts of the immunoglobulins IgA, IgG and IgM synthesized and secreted by a duodenal biopsy over a 2-day period were compared. There was no significant difference in the immunoglobulin production between the two groups. This suggests that age itself may have no effect on duodenal mucosal immunity.
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