Sylvia L.F. Pender
University of Southampton, UK
Title: The importance of immune response during healthy ageing
Biography
Biography: Sylvia L.F. Pender
Abstract
Our body’s immune defense system deteriorates with time and as a result, one is more prone to have infections which induce systemic low grade inflammation in multiple organs. As such, ‘healthy’ ageing is accompanied by the development of age-related diseases such as cancer, atherosclerosis, scarcopenia and osteoporosis. The mechanisms by which successful ageing occurs is the preservation of a good population of functional immune and non-immune cells which are immunologically characterized by preserved lympho-proliferative responses and natural killer (NK) cell cytotoxicity, as well as conserved antigen presentation to delay or prevent age-related diseases. A decline in immune function with age is supported by many epidemiological and clinical observations, with a decrease in T-cell mediated function being responsible for a large part of this change. The pathophysiological mechanisms are only partially understood. Timp-3 is the natural inhibitor of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP). Timp-3 knock-out mice, in general, have low grade inflammation in the gut. We observed that the female animals die of wasting diseases at the age of ~50 weeks compared to age matched males and WT which remain healthy. The females only, show signs of premature ageing phenotypes. We hypothesise that low grade systemic inflammation accelerate senescence. In this presentation, we will discuss the role of NK cells, the immune components of the genetic knock-out Timp3 mice during ageing.