Other Immunological Aspects in Ageing

Abstract

The influence of immune factors in relation to ageing is important, perhaps pre-eminently important. An immunologist can well be excused for taking it as the central theme of his picture of ageing, and, as long as we remember that there are many ways of dying of old age for other reasons than the failure of defences against invading microorganisms or body cells rendered alien by malignant change, it is important to press the immunological approach as far as it will go. At this stage, therefore, a more specific account can be attempted of the main ways by which the postulated fading out of immune effectiveness is reflected in ageing. Four chief divisions can be recognized. The first concerns the extent and manifestations of falling antibody levels and eroded T-cell responses; the second deals with the manifestations of autoimmune disease and autoimmune processes generally in relation to age; the third sector deals with amyloid disease and the fourth with immune surveillance. This last will need to be deferred until the question of the relationship of the specific age-incidence of cancer with other aspects of the ageing process has been discussed in Chapters 11 and 12.