Effects of serum from human subjects of different ages on migration in vitro of human fibroblasts

Abstract

A study was carried out to determine whether human serum from older subjects inhibited cell migration. Sera of both sexes from subjects in their 60s (60–64 years) tended to be more inhibitory (8–14%) to the migration of human fetal lung fibroblasts, TIG-1, than serum from subjects in their 20s (20–29 years). In the case of females, the effects of serum on cell migration were significantly ( P < 0.05) different between the younger and older groups. Next, cell migration-stimulatory activity of serum was measured using human skin fibroblasts from young adult (age 21) and elderly (age 65) donors. The results were similar to those obtained with TIG-1 cells. However, the cell migration-stimulatory activity of serum was not significantly different between the two age groups. A study on the effects of concentration of human serum on the migration of TIG-1 cells showed that cell migration-stimulatory activity of serum declined linearly with increasing concentrations of sera from subjects in their teens (16–19 years) and 50s (50–59 years), and was the same between the two age groups. These results imply that substance(s) inhibitory to cell migration may not have accumulated in serum during the ageing process in humans, although human serum contained substance(s) inhibitory to cell migration.