Immune-inflammatory responses in successful and unsuccessful ageing

Abstract

A dramatic increase in mean life span and life expectancy, coupled with a significant reduction in early mortality, has lead to a large increase in number of elderly people in modern societies. This demographic phenomenon has been paralleled by an epidemic of chronic diseases associated with advancing age. Both innate and instructive immunity are implicated in almost all age-related diseases. The modifications of the immune system in the elderly are evaluated as a deterioration of the immune system, the so-called immunosenescence, which is thought to be mostly the result of the declining effectiveness of T cells and it is responsible for the increased susceptibility of elderly to infectious diseases. In addition, a low-grade systemic inflammation characterizes ageing and inflammatory markers are significant predictors of mortality in old humans. This pro-inflammatory status of the elderly underlies biological mechanisms responsible for physical function decline and inflammatory age-related diseases are initiated or worsened by systemic inflammation.