Rejuvenation of immunity: in mice – OK, are people next in line?
Aging of the immune system can be reversed
Dmitry Tselikov, CompulentaResearchers from the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa) have found a way to reverse the aging process of the immune system by removing old B-lymphocytes from the body of elderly mice and encouraging the production of young and powerful cells.
"As is the case with any process of senility in the body, we used to believe that the aging of the immune system (including the B-cell population) is a progressive process that cannot be stopped or reversed," notes the lead author of the study Doron Melamed. "But it's not like that."
Like the whole body, the immune system weakens with age, which leads to a significant increase in morbidity among the elderly and a sharp decrease in their ability to respond to vaccination. B-lymphocytes are the main cellular components of the immune system and are responsible for the production of antibodies.
Numerous studies have shown that the production of B cells decreases with age. In addition, failures in the selection process begin, as a result of which old cells with limited capabilities accumulate.
It turns out that to restore B-lymphocyte homeostasis, it is enough to artificially cause a chronic deficiency of these cells. The body is forced to reactivate the bone marrow and force it to produce B cells in a volume that does not differ from the indicators of young mice. As a result, the response to vaccination among old-timers improved by 400% (5 times! – VM).
"For the first time, we were able to show that physiological aging is regulated by a process that can be reversed," Mr. Melamed summarizes.
The results of the study are published in the journal Blood (Zohar Keren et al., B cell depletion reactivates B lymphopoiesis in the BM and rejuvenates the B lineage in aging).
Prepared based on the materials of NewsWise (Researchers Discover a Way to Reverse Immune System Aging).
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28.01.2011