In-depth human immune cellular profiling from newborn to frail

Wangchun Li; Hangyu Liu; Lijuan Gao; Yang Hu; Anna Zhang; Wenfeng Li; Guolong Liu; Weibin Bai; Yudai Xu; Chanchan Xiao; Jieping Deng; Wen Lei; Guobing Chen

doi:10.1093/jleuko/qiae046

In-depth human immune cellular profiling from newborn to frail

J Leukoc Biol. 2024 Mar 6:qiae046. doi: 10.1093/jleuko/qiae046. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Wangchun Li¹, Hangyu Liu^{2

3}, Lijuan Gao^{2

3}, Yang Hu⁴, Anna Zhang¹, Wenfeng Li¹, Guolong Liu⁵, Weibin Bai⁶, Yudai Xu^{2

3}, Chanchan Xiao^{2

3}, Jieping Deng^{3

7}, Wen Lei^{3

8}, Guobing Chen^{2

3

9}

Affiliations

¹ Affiliated Shunde Hospital, Jinan University, Foshan 528000, China.
² Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine; Institute of Geriatric Immunology, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
³ Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Great Bay Area Geroscience Joint Laboratory, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁴ NHC Key Laboratory of Male Reproduction and Genetics, Guangdong Provincial Reproductive Science Institute, Guangdong Provincial Fertility Hospital, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁵ Department of Medical Oncology, the Second Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510180, China.
⁶ Department of Food Science and Engineering, Institute of Food Safety and Nutrition, Guangdong Engineering Technology Center of Food Safety Molecular Rapid Detection, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁷ Department of Systems Biomedical Sciences, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁸ Guangdong Second Provincial General Hospital, Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Postdoctoral research station, School of Medicine, Jinan University, Guangzhou 510632, China.
⁹ Key Laboratory of Viral Pathogenesis & Infection Prevention and Control (Jinan University), Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, 510632, China.

PMID: 38447557
DOI: 10.1093/jleuko/qiae046

Abstract

Immune functional decline and remodeling accompany aging and frailty. It is still largely unknown how changes in the immune cellular composition differentiate healthy individuals from those become frail at a relatively early age. Our aim in this exploratory study was to investigate immunological changes from newborn to frailty, and the association between health statute and various immune cell subtypes. The participants analyzed in this study covered human cord blood cells and peripheral blood cells collected from young adults, healthy and frail old individuals. A total of 30 immune cell subsets was performed by flow cytometry based on the surface markers of immune cells. Furthermore, frailty was investigated for its relations with various leukocyte subpopulations. Frail individuals exhibited a higher CD4/CD8 ratio, a higher proportion of CD4+ central memory T (TCM) cells, CD8+ effector memory T cells, CD27- switched memory B (CD27-BSM) cells, CD27+ switched memory B cells, age-associated B cells (ABCs) and CD38-CD24- B cells, and a lower proportion of naïve CD8 + T cells and progenitor B cells. The Frailty index score was found to be associated with naïve T cells, CD4/CD8 ratio, ABCs, CD27-BSM cells, and CD4+ TCM cells. Our findings conducted a relatively comprehensive and extensive atlas of age- and frailty-related changes in peripheral leukocyte subpopulations from newborn to frailty. The immune phenotypes identified in this study can contribute to a deeper understanding of immunosenescence in frailty and may provide a rationale for future interventions and diagnosis.

Keywords: Aging; Flow cytometry; Frailty; Immune cellular profiling; Immunosenescence.