Elderly high NK responders are characterized by intensive proliferative response to PHA and Con A and optimal health status

Abstract

In this paper we verify a hypothesis emerging from recent immunogerontological studies assuming that an elevated level of NK activity in the elderly may be regarded as a factor compensating for a decreased reactivity of T cells. According to this assumption a high NK activity should be associated with a poor reactivity of T cells. In our study the mitogenic responses of lymphocytes of the elderly and the young high and low NK responders to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and Concanavalin A (Con A) were measured. A high level of NK activity was not found, as would be expected from the hypothesis, to be associated with a poor reactivity to PHA and Con A. In contrast, the mitogenic response to PHA and Con A was intensive in both the young and old high NK responders while weak proliferative responses to T cell mitogens were characteristic of the young and old low NK responders. Thus, our results do not support the assumption of an association between a high NK activity and a low proliferative response to T cell mitogens in the elderly. We also found that both the elderly and the young high NK responders were characterized by an optimal health status.