The Immunosenescence of αβ & γδ T cells in human blood and skin

• Main Author: Xu, Weili
• Other Authors: Anis Larbi
• Format: Theses and Dissertations
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Biological sciences
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/83643; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/47613
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Studies in human aging mainly focus on αβ T cells while γδ T cells and skin-resident T cells have been neglected despite their role in immunosurveillance. In this thesis, we showed that peripheral Vδ2+ are differentially susceptible to life-long stresses as compared to other αβ and γδ T cells. Using aging, cytomegalovirus history as immunological models and via the different functional assays, we show that Vδ2+ T cells are protected from cellular senescence. Next, we also investigated the skin-resident T cells and show that they are also differentially susceptible to life-long stresses as compared to periphery T cells. In conclusion, this shows that not all immune cells in the host undergo similar process of immunosenescence and the underlying biology and mechanisms behind Vδ2+ and skin-resident T cells’ protection from cellular senescence with age could be exploited as possible interventions to other cell types or by itself to mitigate the “grey tsunami”.