Your Immune System Ages in Two Big Bursts
Your 40s and 60s are periods of intense remodeling The post Your Immune System Ages in Two Big Bursts appeared first on Nautilus .
Between the ages of 40 and 60, our immune system undergoes two significant periods of remodeling. Instead of aging gradually, immune cells experience two bursts of aging. Duke University immunologists studied the genetic activity of nearly 3.8 million immune cells from around 2,000 healthy individuals aged 19 to 97 in Singapore. Their findings were published in Nature Communications.
T-cells, crucial for the adaptive immune response, showed notable changes in transcription and translation during these two aging bursts. Helper T-cells, which coordinate the immune response, displayed altered gene expression profiles around age 40. Killer T-cells, responsible for eliminating infected cells, experienced altered gene expression around age 60.
There were notable differences between the sexes. In women, killer T-cells showed a continuous increase in immune activation and killing capabilities, while in men, this rise plateaued later in life.
This difference may explain why older women are more effective at clearing pathogens and responding to vaccines compared to older men. However, this heightened immune activation in women could also contribute to inflammation. Additionally, both sexes experienced a decline in immune cell function, with a reduction in protein synthesis capacity, limiting cellular stress responses, and potentially promoting misfolded protein accumulation.
Understanding these windows of immune aging could lead to personalized treatments and shed light on why some autoimmune conditions disproportionately affect women.
Written by urgent.news from Nautilus's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
