Both age and gender affect thymic output: more recent thymic migrants in females than males as they age
Both age and gender affect thymic output: more recent thymic migrants in females than males as they age
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DOI：
10.1046/j.1365-2249.2001.01640.x
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发表时间：
2001-09-01
影响因子：
4.6
通讯作者：
Aspinall, R
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Pido-Lopez, J;Imami, N;Aspinall, R
胸腺经历与年龄相关的退化，研究表明胸腺大小从出生到中年以每年约3%的速度减小，此后以每年1%的速度减小。这项研究的目的是确定胸腺萎缩对胸腺T淋巴细胞产生的影响，并澄清胸腺功能性别差异的持续不确定性。我们通过测量信号联合T细胞受体重排切除环(SjTRECs)来量化血液中的近期胸腺移行者(RTES)，并表明血液中RTES的数量随着年龄的增加而下降与性别有关。女性外周血中每个CD3(+)T细胞的sjTRECs水平显著高于男性(P=0.002)，尽管在所分析的人群中CD3(+)T细胞的绝对数没有显著的性别差异(P>；0.10)。我们的发现表明，与男性相比，女性的胸腺功能更好，这为女性提供了更多的新近迁徙的胸腺，使其寿命更长。这一发现为之前的研究中观察到的免疫学性别差异提供了一个合理的解释，也可能解释了女性普遍比男性预期寿命更长的原因。
The thymus undergoes age-associated involution, with studies showing thymic size decreasing from birth at a rate of approximately 3% per year until middle age, and at a rate of 1% per year thereafter. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of thymic atrophy on T-lymphocyte production by the thymus, and to clarify the ongoing uncertainty regarding gender differences in thymic function. We quantified recent thymic emigrants (RTEs) in blood through the measurement of signal joint T-cell receptor rearrangement excision circles (sjTRECs), and showed that the decline in the number of RTEs in the blood with increasing age is gender-linked. Peripheral blood from females contained significantly higher levels of sjTRECs per CD3(+) T cell than blood from males (P = 0.002), despite there being no significant gender difference in the absolute number of CD3(+) T cells in the populations analysed (P > 0.10). Our findings suggest better thymic function in females compared with males, providing females with a higher number of recent thymic emigrants for longer periods of life. Such a finding provides a plausible explanation for the immunological gender differences observed in previous studies and possibly, for the general longer life expectancy in females compared with males.