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As people age, their immune systems begin to decline naturally. This aging of the immune system, called immunosenescence, can be an important part of age-related health problems such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, as well as the less effective response of older people to vaccines.
But not all immune systems age at the same rate. In our recently published study, my colleagues and I found that social stress, stress that arises from difficult or challenging circumstances related to your social position or relationships with other people, is associated with signs. of accelerated aging of the immune system.
Data and immunosenescence
To better understand why people of the same chronological age may have different immune ages, my colleagues and I analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study, a large nationally representative survey of older American adults. 50 years funded by the National Institute on Aging.
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HRS researchers ask participants about different types of stressors they have experienced, including stressful life events, such as job loss; discrimination, which can mean being treated unfairly or being denied attention; significant lifelong trauma, such as a family member having a life-threatening illness; and chronic stress, such as financial stress.
Recently, HRS researchers have also begun collecting blood from a sample of participants, counting the number of different types of immune cells present, including white blood cells. These cells play a central role in immune responses to viruses, bacteria, and other invaders. This is the first time such detailed information on immune cells has been collected in a large national survey.
Analyzing data from 5,744 HRS participants who provided blood and answered questions from the stress survey, my research team and I found that people who experienced the most stress had a lower proportion. of “naive” T cells: fresh cells needed to face invaders. the immune system has not been found before.
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They also have a higher proportion of “late-differentiated” T cells: older cells that have depleted their ability to fight invaders and instead produce proteins that can increase harmful inflammation.
People with low proportions of newer T cells and high proportions of older T cells have an older immune system.
However, after controlling a poor diet and low exercise, the connection between stress and accelerated immune aging was not as strong. This suggests that improving these health behaviors could help offset the dangers associated with stress.
Similarly, after considering potential exposure to cytomegalovirus (CMV), a common virus, usually asymptomatic known to accelerate immune aging, the link between stress and cell aging was reduced. · Immune cells. While CMV normally remains dormant in the body, researchers have found that stress can cause CMV to become inflamed and force the immune system to compromise more resources to control the reactivated virus. Sustained infection control can consume naive T cell supplies and result in more depleted T cells circulating throughout the body and causing chronic inflammation, a major contributor to age-related disease.
Understand immune aging
Our study helps clarify the association between social stress and faster immune aging. It also highlights potential ways to slow down immune aging, such as changing the way people cope with stress and improving lifestyle behaviors around diet, smoking, and exercise. The development of effective cytomegalovirus vaccines can also help relieve the aging of the immune system.
Strengthening your immunity as you age
Epidemiological studies, however, cannot fully establish cause and effect. More research is needed to confirm whether stress reduction or lifestyle changes will lead to improvements in immune aging and to better understand how stress and latent pathogens such as cytomegalovirus interact to cause disease and dead. We are using additional HRS data to examine how these and other factors, including childhood adversity, affect immune aging over time.
Less aged immune systems are better able to fight infections and generate protective immunity from vaccines. Immunosenescence could help explain why people are likely to have more severe cases of coronavirus and a weaker response to vaccines as they age. Understanding what influences immune aging can help researchers better address age-related disparities in health and disease.
This article was originally published on theconversation.com.