Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2002 Oct-Dec;13(4):392-4.

Compromised interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production in the elderly to both acute and latent viral antigen stimulation: contribution to the immune risk phenotype?

Qin Ouyang  1 , Wolfgang M Wagner, Anders Wikby, Ed Remarque, Graham Pawelec
Affiliations
  • PMID: 12517723
Free article
Review

Compromised interferon gamma (IFN-gamma) production in the elderly to both acute and latent viral antigen stimulation: contribution to the immune risk phenotype?

Qin Ouyang et al. Eur Cytokine Netw. 2002 Oct-Dec.
Free article

Abstract

The elderly suffer from an increased incidence of infectious disease, accompanied by increased morbidity and mortality. Interferon-gamma plays an important role in defense against intracellular pathogens such as mycobacteria and viruses. A reduced capacity to produce this cytokine in the elderly, as demonstrated by our findings of significant decreases in IFN-gamma production in vitro on stimulation with bacterial products (LPS) or viral antigens (influenza vaccine), might therefore contribute to disease susceptibility. Moreover, accumulating data suggest that persistent infection with EBV and particularly CMV impacts upon the immune system in aging and may contribute to the immune risk phenotype (IRP), which predicts remaining longevity in the very elderly. Using tetramer technology and IFN-gamma ELISPOT assays, we found that the commonly-observed clonal expansions of CD8+ T-cells in the elderly were for the most part poorly-functional CMV- and EBV-specific cells, expressing little CD28. The resulting accumulation of dysfunctional cells may lead to a reduction of the repertoire of functional T-cells available for responses to novel antigens. Further longitudinal studies are needed to demonstrate whether cytokines such as IFN-g are also part of the IRP. Improving the definition of the IRP will help to understand and thus prevent or reverse age-associated immune dysfunction.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources