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How the Aging Process Affects Our Immune System: Mechanisms, Consequences, and Perspectives for Intervention

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Health and Cognition in Old Age

Part of the book series: International Perspectives on Aging ((Int. Perspect. Aging,volume 10))

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Abstract

The aging of the immune system involves a complex set of changes that is collectively referred to as immune senescence. Clinically, immune senescence has been associated with decreased protection following vaccinations, increased morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases, increased risk of cancer, and increased incidence of autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Although our understanding of the mechanisms that drive immune senescence has improved during the past decades, we are still far away from therapies that would be able to delay or even prevent the development of immune senescence in humans. This book chapter will illustrate our current knowledge of how the aging process affects our immune system, which key factors are responsible for the aging of immune cells, how environmental factors such as certain life-long viral infections may affect immunological aging, and what challenges the scientific community has to overcome to successfully implement strategies that delay or prevent immunosenescence and thereby increase the human health span.

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Acknowledgment 

Dietmar Herndler-Brandstetter is an Erwin Schrodinger Fellow (funded by the Austrian Science Fund, J3220-B19, 2012–2013) and a previous FLARE Fellow (funded by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, 2008–2011).

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  1. Department of Immunobiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, 06511, USA

    Dietmar Herndler-Brandstetter

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Correspondence to Dietmar Herndler-Brandstetter .

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  1. Faculty of Language and Literature, Humanities, Arts and Education, University of Luxembourg, Walferdange, Luxembourg

    Anja K. Leist

  2. Gerontology Research Center, University of Jyväskylä, Jyväskylä, Finland

    Jenni Kulmala

  3. Mental Health Promotion Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, THL, Vaasa, Finland

    Fredrica Nyqvist

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Herndler-Brandstetter, D. (2014). How the Aging Process Affects Our Immune System: Mechanisms, Consequences, and Perspectives for Intervention. In: Leist, A., Kulmala, J., Nyqvist, F. (eds) Health and Cognition in Old Age. International Perspectives on Aging, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-06650-9_5

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