Lavanchy D, Rosenthal M
Schweiz Med Wochenschr. 1978 Apr 15;108(15):551-5.
The study of lymphocyte functions is of great significance for evaluation of the immune response. One of the most valuable assays being the mitogenic response of lymphocytes to different antigens or mitogens, the question of the extent to which lymphocyte response decreased with advancing age has been studied. Peripheral blood lymphocytes from healthy individuals aged 21 to 97 years were assayed for the blastogenic response to different mitogens. A significant age-dependent reduction of lymphocyte stimulation could be observed with two of the three mitogens tested. Since these mitogens in the concentrations used are mainly T lymphocyte stimulators, it can be concluded that an age-dependent reduction in T lymphocyte functions is present. These findings are not only of diagnostic significance but also have therapeutic implications for all geriatric diseases in which immunity may play a role. Furthermore, the experiments described show that the lymphocyte transformation assay with different mitogens is a simple reproducible assay which has its place in every routine evaluation of the immune response system.
淋巴细胞功能的研究对于评估免疫反应具有重要意义。作为最有价值的检测方法之一，淋巴细胞对不同抗原或有丝分裂原的促有丝分裂反应，人们已经研究了淋巴细胞反应随年龄增长而降低的程度。对年龄在21岁至97岁的健康个体的外周血淋巴细胞进行检测，以观察其对不同有丝分裂原的母细胞生成反应。在所测试的三种有丝分裂原中，有两种可观察到淋巴细胞刺激随年龄增长而显著降低。由于所用浓度的这些有丝分裂原主要是T淋巴细胞刺激剂，因此可以得出结论，T淋巴细胞功能存在随年龄增长而降低的情况。这些发现不仅具有诊断意义，而且对所有可能涉及免疫作用的老年疾病都具有治疗意义。此外，所描述的实验表明，用不同有丝分裂原进行的淋巴细胞转化试验是一种简单且可重复的检测方法，在免疫反应系统的每次常规评估中都有其应用价值。
