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Interleukin-7 and Immunorejuvenation

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Book cover Handbook of Immunosenescence

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Abstract

Estimates of the global population in 2016 suggest it to be approximately 7334 million of which more than 930 million are over 60 years of age. This is almost 13% of the population, and the number of older people is destined to grow in the future. Such a change in the demographic profile by an increase in a population which are more active than previous generations, travel more while also showing an increased susceptibility to infection and poorer responses to vaccines could lead to a shift in the global disease distribution profile. While we do not believe that chronological age should be used as a marker of immunological status we are aware that aging is associated with a decline in immune function and older age makes it responsible for the poorer responses to pathogens and increased disease susceptibility.

In this chapter we describe changes in the immune systems specially those within the T cell arm that occur as we age and how this impacts on immunity. In addition we describe possible therapies which can be undertaken to reverse these changes either through rejuvenating the thymus where T cells are developed from precursors, and briefly comment on the role of interleukin-7 in this process. We also discuss other therapeutic options including the generation of T cells in the laboratory or the use of stored autologous blood-derived leukocytes, donated and stored during an early period of life, to replace cells within the peripheral T cell pool of older individuals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Academy of Health & Wellbeing, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Anglia Ruskin University, Chelmsford, Essex, UK

    Richard Aspinall & Pierre Olivier Lang

  2. Deptartment of Medicine, Imperial College, London, UK

    Wayne Mitchell

  3. Geriatric and rehabilitation geriatric division, University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV), Lausanne, Switzerland

    Pierre Olivier Lang

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  1. Richard Aspinall
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  2. Wayne Mitchell
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  3. Pierre Olivier Lang
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Correspondence to Richard Aspinall .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Geriatrics Research Center on Aging, University of Sherbrooke Dept. of Medicine, Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

  2. Dept of Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Claudio Franceschi

  3. Institute for Health and Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan

    Katsuiku Hirokawa

  4. Center for Medical Research, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

    Graham Pawelec

Section Editor information

  1. Research Center on Aging, Department of Medicine, Immunology Graduate Programme, Faculty of Medicine, University of Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada

    Tamas Fulop

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Aspinall, R., Mitchell, W., Lang, P.O. (2018). Interleukin-7 and Immunorejuvenation. In: Fulop, T., Franceschi, C., Hirokawa, K., Pawelec, G. (eds) Handbook of Immunosenescence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64597-1_72-1

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