Different contribution of EBV and CMV infections in very long-term carriers to age-related alterations of CD8+ T cells.

Aging is accompanied by a complex dynamics of CD8+ T cell subsets whose origin is unclear. To evaluate the impact of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) and cytomegalovirus (CMV) chronic infections on CD8+ T cells in far advanced age, we studied CD8+ T cells frequencies and phenotype in nonagenarians and centenarians by HLA-A*0201- and HLA-B*0702-tetramers incorporating epitopes specific of both viruses along with viral replication. The results demonstrate that EBV and CMV infections induce quantitatively and qualitatively different CD8+ T-cell responses in advanced aging.

Marked increase with age of type 1 cytokines within memory and effector/cytotoxic CD8+ T cells in humans: a contribution to understand the relationship between inflammation and immunosenescence.

The ageing process is characterized by a progressive exhaustion of the naïve T cell reservoir that is accompanied by a compensatory expansion of effector/cytotoxic CD8+CD28- T cells. However, the origin and function of this subpopulation is not completely clarified. In this study, we examined the intracellular cytokine profile in purified CD8+ T cells obtained from 29 healthy subjects of different ages.