Age-associated alteration in naive and memory Th17 cell response in humans

Th17 cells produce IL-17 that plays an important role in host defense. However, little is known about whether aging affects human Th17 cells. Here we demonstrated that healthy elderly people (age ≥ 65) had a decreased frequency of IL-17-producing cells in memory CD4+ T cells compared to healthy young people (age ≤ 40) while both groups had similar frequencies of IFN-γ-producing cells in the same memory cell subset as measured by flow cytometry. In contrast, the healthy elderly had increased differentiation of IL-17-producing effector cells but not IFN-γ-producing cells from naive CD4+ T cells compared to the healthy young. The results of ELISA also showed similar findings with increased IL-17 production from naive CD4+ T cells and decreased IL-17 production from memory CD4+ T cells in the elderly compared to the young. These findings indicate that aging differentially affects naive and memory Th17 cell responses in humans.