Agrawal Anshu
Division of Basic and Clinical Immunology, Department of Medicine, University of California Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697, USA.
Int J Mol Sci. 2017 Jun 6;18(6):1206. doi: 10.3390/ijms18061206.
Age-associated dysregulated immune and inflammatory responses are one of the major factors responsible for the prevalence of chronic respiratory diseases in the older population. Pulmonary dendritic cells (DCs) are present below the airway epithelial cells (AECs) and are critical in initiating effective immune responses to harmful pathogens while maintaining tolerance against harmless antigens. The interaction between DCs and AECs plays a crucial role in lung immunity at homeostasis and during infections. The functions of both DCs and AECs are impacted with age. The present report reviews how the potential crosstalk between pulmonary DCs and AECs is dysregulated in the elderly impairing the capacity to maintain tolerance at the respiratory surfaces, which results in severe and chronic respiratory inflammatory diseases. We also discuss how such DC-AECs crosstalk will provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the increased susceptibility of the elderly to pulmonary inflammatory diseases.
与年龄相关的免疫和炎症反应失调是老年人群中慢性呼吸道疾病患病率高的主要因素之一。肺树突状细胞（DCs）存在于气道上皮细胞（AECs）下方，在启动对有害病原体的有效免疫反应同时维持对无害抗原的耐受性方面起着关键作用。DCs和AECs之间的相互作用在稳态和感染期间的肺部免疫中起着至关重要的作用。DCs和AECs的功能都会随着年龄的增长而受到影响。本报告综述了肺部DCs和AECs之间潜在的相互作用在老年人中是如何失调的，从而损害了在呼吸道表面维持耐受性的能力，进而导致严重的慢性呼吸道炎症性疾病。我们还讨论了这种DC-AECs相互作用将如何为深入了解老年人对肺部炎症性疾病易感性增加的潜在机制提供线索。
