Evaluation of T cell phenotype and function in 10-30 years old individuals and the correlation of its alteration with age

Immunity is changed with increasing the age and leads to immunoscenescence in elderly. This phenomenon is associated with the alteration of T cell phenotype and function. The aim of the present study was to investigate T lymphocyte phenotype and intracellular IL-2 and interferon-gamma (IFNγ) and their correlation with age in a group of healthy subjects.
In this descriptive study, blood was obtained from 26 healthy individuals. IL2 and IFN- γ were determined by intracellular cytokine detection method. T cell immunophenotype was detected using by flow cytometry. Obtained data of complete blood count, flow cytometry and other data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and Spearman correlation test.
T lymphocyte frequency was 54.81 ± 14.87% and CD4 and CD8 positive T cells were 644.15± 294.5/mm3 and 417.04± 155.44/mm3, respectively. The number of T cell expressing CD27, CD28, CD57 and CCR7 and the frequency of IL2 and IFNγ T cells were more in CD4 subset than CD8 T cells. Among the investigated phenotypes, only the frequency of CD8ࠤ T cells was negatively correlated with age.
The findings demonstrated that T cell phenotype alterations related to the decrease of naïve and central memory T cells and increase of effector memory T cells (associated with immunoscenescence) is not significantly correlated with age in young individuals. For more consistent data, study of the immune function and phenotype is suggested in different young and old groups.