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The Immunoepidemiology of Aging

  • Chapter
Immunology and Aging

Part of the book series: Comprehensive Immunology ((COMIMUN,volume 1))

Summary

Age-related changes in man are particularly evident, structurally and functionally, in the thymus and thymus-dependent lymphocyte population as judged by several indices of integrity of the T cell system, whereas B cell functions appear to be relatively well preserved.

All reported human population studies point to an incremental increase with aging of various autoantibodies and, since autoantibodies are associated with degenerative vascular disease, particularly in males, vascular degeneration appears to be mediated in part through autoimmune mechanisms. There is also evidence that age-associated failure of the thymus-dependent immune functions predisposes to mortality.

Thus the contribution of thymic failure to aging is determined in several ways, either by defective “helper” and effector functions, so predisposing to infections and emergence of cancer, or by defective suppressor functions, so predisposing to autoimmunity and autoantibody-mediated vascular disease.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Research Unit of The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, The Royal Melbourne Hospital, Victoria, Australia

    Ian R. Mackay, Senga F. Whittingham & John D. Mathews

Authors
  1. Ian R. Mackay
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  2. Senga F. Whittingham
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  3. John D. Mathews
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Baltimore City Hospitals, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Takashi Makinodan

  2. Veterans Administration Wadsworth Hospital Center, USA

    Takashi Makinodan

  3. University of California, Los Angeles, USA

    Takashi Makinodan

  4. Sidney Farber Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

    Edmond Yunis

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© 1977 Plenum Publishing Corporation

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Mackay, I.R., Whittingham, S.F., Mathews, J.D. (1977). The Immunoepidemiology of Aging. In: Makinodan, T., Yunis, E. (eds) Immunology and Aging. Comprehensive Immunology, vol 1. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2541-3_4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2541-3_4

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4684-2543-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4684-2541-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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