Dendritic cells from old mice have a diminished capacity to activate CD8+ T cells

ESTEFANÍA ZACCA, MARÍA INÉS CRESPO, MIGUEL RUFAIL, BELKYS MALETTO, MARÍA CRISTINA PISTORESI Y GABRIEL MORÓN

Congreso; IX Congreso de la Asociación Latinoamericana de Inmunología, Viña del Mar, Chile.; 2009

During aging, B and T cells manifest changes that affect their response to antigens (Ag). However, it is practically unkown how dendritic cells could participate in these changes. We have previously reported that DCs from 18/20-month-old mice (old, o) had a diminished ability to maturate in the presence of LPS as well as a lower capacity to cross present in vitro Ovalbumin (OVA) to an OVA-specific, MHC I restricted hybridoma (B3Z cells) compared to 2/3-month-old mice (young, y). We first studied the content of DCs in lymphoid organs. We found the following values (young vs old mice): popliteal lymph node (LN), 0.6±0.3 vs 0.7±0.5 (ns); mesenteric LN, 1.7±0.6 vs 3±1 (ns); spleen, 1.9±0.2 vs 1.2±0.2 (p