Production of antimicrobial peptides is preserved in aging

•There is no reduction in antimicrobial peptide mediated immunity during aging.•CD56 + and CD14 + cells produce similar amounts of AMP's in elderly and Young adults.•LL-37 and defensin levels are comparable between elderly and young adults.•The maintenance of antimicrobial peptides in elderly adults leads to a healthy aging.

There is an increased susceptibility to infections during elderly, mainly because of the decreased efficacy of adaptive immunity to contain microorganisms. Albeit most of the elderly adults develop this deficiency in adaptive immunity only a minor percentage of them developed recurrent infectious diseases, thus innate immunity represents an important barrier to avoid infections in this group of aged people. Since antimicrobial peptides are important molecules of innate immunity in the study we sought to determine whether healthy aging correlates with a proper antimicrobial production. Our results by ELISA and flow cytometry showed that healthy elder individuals produce significant amounts of both cathelicidin and β-defensin-2 (hBD-2) comparable with those found in healthy young individuals. Our results suggest that during healthy aging the maintenance of the antimicrobial peptide innate immune response may be responsible for the protection against infectious diseases.