Signal transduction in the aging immune system

✍ Scribed by Amir A Sadighi Akha; Richard A Miller

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 142 KB
• Volume: 17
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0952-7915
• DOI: 10.1016/j.coi.2005.07.004

✦ Synopsis

T cells from aged mice show defects in the early stages of the activation process, including alterations in cytoskeletal reorganization that precede discrimination, by the T cell receptor, of agonist from antagonist peptides. Aging also modifies the pattern of glycosylation of T cell surface macromolecules, and enzymatic cleavage of these modified glycoproteins can restore high level responses to T cells from aged mice. Alterations in plasma membrane lipids and cholesterol-rich microdomains might also contribute to agerelated deficits in T cell signaling. Evidence for intrinsic signal defects in aged B cells is more limited, but might involve pathways that activate the transcription factor E47, which has been implicated in somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination.