B Cells Compartment in Centenarian Offspring and Old People

Abstract

Abstract:Immunosenescence is considered a major contributory factor to the increased frequency of morbidity and mortality among elderly. On the other hand centenarians are considered the best example of successful ageing. To gain insight into mechanisms of immunosenescence and its clinical relevance, a possible model is represented by centenarians and/or their offspring. Nowadays centenarians are not more a curiosity, but in Europe are 1/8000 inhabitants and it has been demonstrated that the centenarian offspring, who are typically in their 70s and 80s, have a survival advantage when compared with age-matched controls whose parents died at an average life expectancy. Then again, studies on immunosenescence focus mainly on T cell impairment, although B cells are also affected. So, in the present preliminary report, we have studied B cell compartment in two classes of individuals, old people and centenarian offspring. B cell compartment was analysed using anti-IgD and CD27 antibodies which characterize naïve B cells ( do not show the increase that we have previously demonstrated in healthy elderly donors. These data are similar to that found in previously experiments on young subjects. So, our preliminary results show that centenarian offspring do not have the typical trend of memory/naive B cell subsets observed in elderly people and this is in agreement with the higher levels of IgM in the serum of centenarian offspring in comparison with data obtained in age-matched controls. This reservoir of naive B cell might be one of the causes that make centenarian offspring able to keep fighting off new infections, hence prolonging their life. So, B cell subset changes could represent a hallmark of successful or unsuccessful ageing and could be used as a biomarker of human life span, potentially useful for the evaluation of anti-ageing treatment.

B cell immunosenescence: different features of naive and memory B cells in elderly

“…(P value \ 0.05, obtained by one way ANOVA nonparametric test, is considered significant) of the disease (Wei et al 2007). Intriguingly we have reported (Colonna-Romano et al 2010) that DN B cells are not increased in a ''genetically advantaged'' cohort of centenarian's offspring that also show a higher level of naïve B cells compared to their agematched controls (70-80 years old).…”

Cytokine Serum Profile in a Group of Sicilian Nonagenarians

“…The decrement of virgin CD27 À B lymphocytes cells and the concurrent increase of memory CD27 þ B lymphocytes seem to have an impact on the antibody repertoire of older individuals. [19][20][21] In this view, our data might be related to the different role played by IL-4 and IL-13 in the Th2 switch and B cell response maintenance in aging. Actually the Th2 switch, where IL-4 has a major key role, is already strongly reduced in advanced aged individuals, where there is a higher ratio between differentiated memory cells and virgin naïve ones, whereas, IL13 is mainly produced by primed Th2 cells.…”

Double negative (CD19+IgG+IgD−CD27−) B lymphocytes: A new insight from telomerase in healthy elderly, in centenarian offspring and in Alzheimer's disease patients

“…the long term stimulation due to chronic stimuli or age. Moreover it seems that also genetic background plays a role as supported by our previous studies on centenarian offspring (CO), "genetically advantaged" for longevity, who have percentages of DN and naive B cells more similar to those observed in young donors, than those observed in coeval healthy elderly donors [20]. Besides, Alzheimer's Disease patients (AD), who represent a model of "unsuccessful ageing", show, when compared with their age matched healthy control donors, a dramatic reduction of total B cells [21,22] and, in particular, a reduction of naive B cells and high levels of DN B cells, (manuscript in preparation).…”