The effect of α-tocopherol on telomerase activity and induction of lymphocyte proliferative ‎responses between young and elderly individuals

Aging or biological senescence is the process of deterioration and loss of living potent over time. Different genes are involved in initiating and continuing the aging process, the most important of which are telomerase activity genes. The present study was aimed to evaluate the effects of α-tocopherol and PPD on telomerase activity and the induction of proliferative lymphocyte responses in people with aging for the first time.

10 cc heparinized blood was drawn from ten elderly individuals aged 80-100 years and ten young 20-40. Then, PBMCs were separated by using a ficoll solution and it was cultured. Lymphocyte proliferation was evaluated by BRDU assay. Gene expression of telomerase activity in treated cells with α-tocopherol and PPD were performed by Real-time PCR method. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA method.

The results of proliferative lymphocyte responses of the elderly showed a significant increase compared to the young. The results of TERT gene expression showed that treatment with dialphatocopherol increased the expression of telomerase activity which showed a significant difference compared to β-actin gene. Also, BrdU assay indicated a relative increase in lymphocyte proliferation of the elderly compared with young people.

α-tocopherol showed an anti-aging effect by which lymphocyte activity increased in the elderly compared to the young.