Table 1 Immunological changes occurring in older individuals compared to younger ages
From: Choosing wisely: practical considerations on treatment efficacy and safety of asthma in the elderly
• | Reduced number and function of hematopoietic stem cells |
• | Thymic involution |
• | Reduced circulating naive T cells |
• | Increased frequencies of well-differentiated memory CD28− T cells with limited proliferative potential |
• | Increased levels of many proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukin (IL)-6 and TNFα |
• | Decreased CD4/CD8 ratios |
• | Senescence of epithelial cells of the lung |
• | Augmented neutrophils in the airway |
• | Reduced function of eosinophils |
• | Decline in the amount of macrophages and cytotoxic natural killer cells |
• | Reduced capacity to stimulate antigen specific T cells of dendritic cells, |
• | Reduced oxidative burst, phagocytic capacity and bactericidal activity of neutophils |
• | Reduced oxidative burst and phagocytic capacity of macrophages |