Review

Life and death of lymphocytes: a role in immunesenescence

Sudhir Gupta , Houfen Su , Ruifen Bi , Sudhanshu Agrawal and Sastry Gollapudi

Laboratories of Cellular and Molecular Immunology and Molecular Biology, Division of Basic and Clinical Immunology, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA

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Immunity & Ageing 2005, 2:12doi:10.1186/1742-4933-2-12

Published:	23 August 2005

Abstract

Human aging is associated with progressive decline in immune functions, increased frequency of infections. Among immune functions, a decline in T cell functions during aging predominates. In this review, we will discuss the molecular signaling in two major pathways of apoptosis, namely death receptor pathway and mitochondrial pathway, and their alterations in both T and B lymphocytes in human aging with a special emphasis on naïve and different memory subsets of CD8+ T cells. We will also discuss a possible role of lymphocyte apoptosis in immune senescence.