Age-related declines and disease-associated variation in immune cell telomere length in a wild mammal.
Age-related declines and disease-associated variation in immune cell telomere length in a wild mammal.
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野生哺乳动物中免疫细胞端粒长度与年龄相关的下降和与疾病相关的变化。
DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0108964
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发表时间：
2014
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Young A
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beirne C;Delahay R;Hares M;Young A
免疫衰老，免疫系统能力随年龄的下降，可能在介导与年龄相关的整体生物体性能下降中发挥关键作用，但对免疫衰老的机制知之甚少。对人类和实验室模型的生物医学研究已经记录了白细胞（“免疫细胞”）端粒长度的年龄和疾病相关的下降，激发了人们对它们在免疫衰老表型的出现中具有潜在的一般作用的兴趣。然而，尚不清楚这些观察结果是否适用于生活在生态现实条件下的野生脊椎动物的免疫细胞群体。在这里，我们研究了纵向变化的平均端粒长度的免疫细胞在野生欧洲獾（Meles meles）。我们的研究结果提供了野生脊椎动物体内免疫细胞端粒长度与年龄相关下降的第一个证据。与年龄相关的端粒长度下降的速率在个体内似乎比在总体群体水平上更陡，这提高了具有短免疫细胞端粒和/或较高免疫细胞端粒磨损速率的个体可能从该群体中选择性丢失的可能性。我们还报告了免疫细胞端粒长度和牛结核病感染状态之间的关联的证据，在感染的最晚期阶段检测到的个体往往比疾病阳性个体具有更短的免疫细胞端粒。虽然男性欧洲獾较大，并显示出较高的年死亡率比女性，我们发现没有证据表明性别差异，无论是平均端粒长度或平均率的个体内端粒磨损随年龄的增长。我们的研究结果支持这样的观点，即年龄相关的免疫细胞端粒长度的下降可能提供一个潜在的一般机制，支持自然人群中年龄相关的免疫能力下降。
Immunosenescence, the deterioration of immune system capability with age, may play a key role in mediating age-related declines in whole-organism performance, but the mechanisms that underpin immunosenescence are poorly understood. Biomedical research on humans and laboratory models has documented age and disease related declines in the telomere lengths of leukocytes (‘immune cells’), stimulating interest their having a potentially general role in the emergence of immunosenescent phenotypes. However, it is unknown whether such observations generalise to the immune cell populations of wild vertebrates living under ecologically realistic conditions. Here we examine longitudinal changes in the mean telomere lengths of immune cells in wild European badgers (Meles meles). Our findings provide the first evidence of within-individual age-related declines in immune cell telomere lengths in a wild vertebrate. That the rate of age-related decline in telomere length appears to be steeper within individuals than at the overall population level raises the possibility that individuals with short immune cell telomeres and/or higher rates of immune cell telomere attrition may be selectively lost from this population. We also report evidence suggestive of associations between immune cell telomere length and bovine tuberculosis infection status, with individuals detected at the most advanced stage of infection tending to have shorter immune cell telomeres than disease positive individuals. While male European badgers are larger and show higher rates of annual mortality than females, we found no evidence of a sex difference in either mean telomere length or the average rate of within-individual telomere attrition with age. Our findings lend support to the view that age-related declines in the telomere lengths of immune cells may provide one potentially general mechanism underpinning age-related declines in immunocompetence in natural populations.
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影响因子：
4.5
作者：
Aubert G;Baerlocher GM;Vulto I;Poon SS;Lansdorp PM
通讯作者：
Lansdorp PM
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作者：
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Hewinson, R. Glyn
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作者：
Geiger, Sylvie;Le Vaillant, Maryline;Criscuolo, Francois
通讯作者：
Criscuolo, Francois
影响因子：
64.5
作者：
Hemann, MT;Strong, MA;Greider, CW
通讯作者：
Greider, CW