PMID: 9546110Apr 18, 1998Paper

Localization and treatment of an oxidation-sensitive defect within the TCR-coupled signalling pathway that is associated with normal and premature immunologic aging

Growth, Development, and Aging : GDA
G F WeberH Cantor

Abstract

The age-dependent decline in the ability of T-cells to mount a proliferative response both to mitogens and to receptor ligation is due to an age-related defect in signal transduction, since functional expression of receptors displayed by aged T-cells is not reduced. We show here that, although turnover of phosphatidylinositol is not diminished, total inositol-trisphosphate generation decreases after T-cell receptor (TCR) ligation, resulting in reduced flux of calcium. Defective inositol-trisphosphate generation may result from impaired activation of phospholipase C due to decreased tyrosine phosphorylation of this enzyme after ligation of CD3 in aged cells. Proliferation of aged T-cells, which is normally 10-30% of the level of young controls, was enhanced almost tenfold by glutathione or its precursor N-acetyl L-cysteine (NAC), reached levels of young controls and was accompanied by restoration of normal inositol-trisphosphate generation and calcium flux. These findings suggest that the T-cell antigen receptor is associated with at least two types of signal transduction modules. The first depends on synthesis and phosphorylation of phosphatidylinositol that is independent of sulphydryl groups and is not affected by senescence....Continue Reading

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