The immunosenescence and its impact on health Part II

Abstract

Immunosenescence produces a low-grade inflammatory state characterized by an elevation of proinflammatory cytokines such as IL-6, IL-1β, tumor necrosis factor α, and others. This inflammatory state exerts influenza on both innate and acquired immunity, producing changes in the cellular and humoral components of acquired immunity, this affects the quality of the response to infections and vaccines and the quality and duration of the immune response related to both. T lymphocytes are the cell population in which the most changes have been described, loss in the production of new naive T lymphocytes, related to physiological thymic atrophy, loss of expression of the costimulation molecule CD28, lower cytotoxic capacity of CD8+ lymphocytes and the cellular “fatigue” that accompanies the senescence process.

The lower response that occurs with son vaccines in old age could no only be a result of the years of life and the chronic inflammatory estate that accompanies it, but also the need to individualize personal conditions and the dose required to obtain de desired immune response.

With a better understanding of the inflammatory changes that accompany aging, we understand more clearly the participation of the immune system in the development of chronic, degerative and autoimmune diseases during old age. This will give us more elements to diagnose and treat them with opportunity and at some point, perhaps, to prevent them.

Recepción: 10/09/2023

Aprobación: 23/10/2025