Sialic acid content and sialyltransferase activity in human lymphocytes with advancing age.

Sialic acid and sialyltransferase activity were determined in lymphocytes obtained from the blood of 78 healthy male volunteers aged 20-80 years. When grouping was made in double decades, statistical evaluation using the Duncan procedure indicates that sialic acid did not show significant differences between groups, whereas the sialyltransferase activity was significantly higher in the group aged 41-60 years as compared to the group aged 20-40 years and the group aged 61-80 years, both at the 0.05 level.