Deficient mitochondrial biogenesis in IL-2 activated NK cells correlates with impaired PGC1-α upregulation in elderly humans

Experimental Gerontology
Dante MirandaMargarita Montoya

Abstract

Immunosenescence has been described as age-associated changes in the immune function which are thought to be responsible for the increased morbidity with age. Human Natural Killer (NK) cells are a specialized heterogeneous subpopulation of lymphocytes involved in immune defense against tumor and microbial diseases. Interestingly, aging-related NK cell dysfunction is associated with features of aging such as tumor incidence, reduced vaccination efficacy, and short survival due to infection. It is known that NK cell effector functions are critically dependent on cytokines and metabolic activity. Our aim was to determine whether there is a difference in purified human NK cell function in response to high concentration of IL-2 between young and elder donors. Here, we report that the stimulation of human NK cells with IL-2 (2000 U/mL) enhance NK cell cytotoxic activity from both young and elderly donors. However, while NK cells from young people responded to IL-2 signaling by increasing mitochondrial mass and mitochondrial membrane potential, no increase in these mitochondrial functional parameters was seen in purified NK cells from elderly subjects. Moreover, as purified NK cells from the young exhibited an almost three-fold increa...Continue Reading

Citations

Nov 5, 2019·Current Pharmaceutical Design·George Anderson, Susana R Betancort Medina
Jan 29, 2020·Antioxidants & Redox Signaling·Helen R GriffithsYvonne Perrie
Aug 29, 2020·IScience·Zachary J GerbecSubramaniam Malarkannan
Nov 11, 2020·Experimental Gerontology·Daniel J Moreno Fernández-AyalaGuillermo López-Lluch
Jul 3, 2021·International Journal of Molecular Sciences·Lara CoppiMaurizio Crestani

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