Phenotypic and functional immune attributes predicting survival in very elderly people

Abstract

Abstract The low level of naïve T-cells commonly observed in the elderly is thought to be causally associated with mortality. However this has not been tested in longitudinal studies. Here, we present correlations between peripheral T-cell subsets and 8-year survival in individuals from the population-based prospective Leiden 85-plus Study. Counter-intuitively, a lower frequency of naïve (CD45RA+CCR7+CD27+CD28+) CD8+ T-cells at baseline (>88 years) correlated with significantly better survival, while there was a tendency for the reciprocal accumulation of late-differentiated effector memory cells (CD45RA-CCR7-CD27-CD28-) also to associate with better survival, suggesting ..