When wrinkles appear on the immune system can it be reversed?

During aging, physiological and physical frailty occur, which is accompanied by a decline in adaptive and innate immunity, termed 'immunosenescence' characterized by marked changes in the composition, function, and competence of the human immune system. Moreover, the capabilities of the immune system to defend the human body against infections, to detect and destruct malignant or autoreactive cells decline, resulting in an increase in the susceptibility to infection, development of cancer, as well as autoimmune disorders. The study of age-related changes in immune function is an important area of investigation. In this review, the function of the immune system during aging, as well as the different ways to rejuvenate the aging immune system, is explored, as medical intervention, balanced nutrition, and a healthy life style will be discussed.

Serum Apelin and Obesity-Related Complications in Egyptian Children.

BACKGROUND: The rapidly increasing prevalence of childhood obesity became a major burden on health worldwide, giving an alarm to clinicians and researchers. Adipocytes act as an active endocrine organ by releasing plenty of bioactive mediators (adipokines) that play a major role in regulating metabolic processes. Apelin is a recently identified adipokine that is expressed in adipocytes. AIM: The current work aimed to uncover the relation between serum apelin and childhood obesity and its related complications as hypertension and hyperglycemia. METHOD: A group of 50 obese and 31 non-obese; sex- and age-matched children were enrolled in our study with a mean age of (9.5 ± 2.1) and (8.7 ± 1.3) respectively. Anthropometric measurements, blood pressure, were assessed in all studied participants, we also determined the lipid profile, serum insulin, fasting blood glucose (FBG) level, HOMA-IR and serum apelin. RESULTS: Obese children had higher levels of HbA1c, FBG, serum insulin, HOMA-IR, total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP Z-score); compared to controls (all P < 0.05). Apelin was significantly higher in obese children versus controls and correlated positively with BMI Z-Score (P = 0.008), DBP Z-Score (P = 0.02), cholesterol, TG (both P = 0.02), serum insulin (P = 0.003), FBG and HOMA-IR (both P = 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed that FBG was the most effective factor in predicting the level of serum apelin (P = 0.04). CONCLUSION: This work supports the hypothesis that apelin may have a crucial role in the pathogenesis of health hazards related to obesity in children including insulin resistance, hypertension and a higher risk of occurrence of metabolic syndrome.

Serum Apelin: A New Marker of Early Atherosclerosis in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus.

INTRODUCTION: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is one of the most common chronic diseases in children that may be complicated by micro or macrovascular complications. Measurement of the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) allows the early detection of atherosclerotic alterations of blood vessels that may complicate T1DM. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: This study is a case-control study. Participants were classified into two groups. The first group included 40 children with T1DM and the second group included 30 matched healthy controls. The studied cases were recruited from Endocrinology and Diabetology Unit, Pediatric Hospital, Ain Shams University. Serum apelin, cholesterol, TG, LDL were measured for every case. Also, albumin level was analyzed in urine. Measurement of the carotid intima-media thickness (CIMT) was done for all cases. RESULTS: Comparison between T1DM patients and controls revealed that serum apelin, cholesterol, TG, LDL and albuminuria were significantly increased in cases compared to controls. Significant positive correlations were detected between HbA1C, albuminuria and lipid profile with apelin in the diabetic group (p < 0.05). CIMT has significant positive correlation with serum apelin levels (r = 0.36, p = 0.05). Also, this study found positive correlations between CIMT and some variables as LDL, SBP z-score and duration of the illness. CONCLUSION: Increased levels of serum apelin in T1DM patients may be considered as predicting factor for the ongoing development of vascular sequels. This study highlighted the possible validity of apelin assay as an early predictor of atherosclerosis in T1DM children. Evaluating CIMT in these patients is of at most important for early detection of subclinical atherosclerosis.

Increased level of B cell differentiation factor in systemic lupus erythematosus patients.

Most autoimmune disease are driven by a dysfunction in T and B cells, but B cells are still an interesting area of research, perturbations in their development are implicated in autoimmune diseases. B cell differentiating factor (BCDF) plays a part in the differentiation of B cells. The aim was To assess the levels of BCDF, IgM and IgG in SLE patients and whether they have any peculiarity in the clinical context of SLE. Thirty six patients with SLE and 24 healthy volunteers as control were enrolled in the study. BCDF was measured using Sandwich ELISA, total human IgM and IgG were measured by calorimetric methods. The mean concentrations of BCDF and IgM were significantly higher in patients with SLE as compared with controls (P < 0.001 and P < 0.0001 respectively). No significant difference was observed as regard IgG. We observed positive correlation between BCDF and IgM (r = 0.281, P = 0.03), and between IgG and IgM, duration of the disease (r = 0.468, P = 0.004, r = 0.337, P = 0.008 respectively). Moreover we observed lower IgM level in patients with discoid lesion (P = 0.009) and lower IgG level in those with hematologic manifestations (P = 0.02). ROC analysis revealed area under curve (AUC) 0.861 for BCDF and 0.902 for IgM, they can delineate SLE from controls at a cut-off value of 98.5 pg/ml, and 18 mg/dl IgM respectively. CONCLUSION: BCDF and IgM are increased in SLE patients and are promissing diagnostic markers for SLE.

Effect of vitamin A deficiency on thymosin-ß4 and CD4 concentrations.

Vitamins are evaluated for their role in immunity. Recently, vitamin A received a particular attention as a critical micronutrient for regulating immune system. Therefore, the present study aimed to search for new about vitamin A. Forty-eight Egyptian adults aged from 18 to 42 years old from both sexes were subjected to clinical examination and nutrition questionnaire and were screened for vitamin A by using ELISA method. Forty subjects were selected and subdivided into two groups. Group 1 with vitamin A at level >200 µg/dl consists of 10 healthy subjects. Group 2 with vitamin A deficiency at level <50 µg/dl consists of 30 subjects. Tß4 and CD4 levels were also determined by a commercial ELISA kit. Results showed a significant decrease in serum levels of Tß4 and CD4 in group 2 than group 1 at P < .003 and P < .019 respectively. Both of Tß4 and CD4 had positive correlation with vitamin A level at P < .000 and P < .003 respectively as well as with each other at p < .000. We concluded that vitamin A deficiency may be influence the levels of Tß4 and CD4.

The Hidden Function of Vitamin D.

AIM: There are no reports regarding the influence of vitamin D on thymosin ß4 and the cluster of differentiation CD4 levels which are important for maintaining a healthy immune system. Consequently, we aimed to explore this relationship through a study. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study was carried out on 35 subjects, screened for 25-hydroxy vitamin D[25 (OH) D] using ELISA method and they were divided into two groups: Group 1 consists of 10 healthy subjects with sufficient vit. D level > 24.8 ng/ml. Group 2 consists of 25 subjects suffering, severely, from vitamin D deficiency at level < 11.325 ng/ml. Also, Thymosin ß4, CD4 and zinc levels were performed. RESULTS: There were significant differences between the two groups in the concentration levels of thymosin ß4, as the group 1 has shown higher levels (P = 0.005). Whereas, CD4 and zinc levels didn't show any significant difference between the two groups. At the same time, a significant positive correlation has been observed between vitamin D, thymosin ß4, and CD4 at (r = 0.719; P = 0.001), and (r = 0.559, P = 0.001) respectively. CONCLUSION: We concluded that vitamin D may be an essential factor that influence or determine the level of thymosin ß4. This study is the first that focused on demonstrating that sufficient level of vitamin D may have the ability to influence the thymic hormone thymosin ß4 levels. Further studies on large scale of subjects are needed to explore the positive correlation we had found between vitamin D and thymosin ß4 and CD4.

Proinflammatory, anti-inflammatory cytokines and adiponkines in students with central obesity.

Several studies have investigated the correlation between central obesity and inflammatory cytokines and the anti-inflammatory cytokine adiponectin. But, the correlation between central obesity and the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4, IL-5 has not been studied yet. Thus, we aimed to study the IL-4 and IL-5 correlation to central obesity in adolescent Egyptian girls among proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines. The study was carried out on 86 obese adolescent girls (BMI>95 percentile) divided into two groups according to central obesity. The group I with waist to hip ratio <0.8 as a control and group II with waist to hip ratio >0.8 (central obesity). There was a significant increase in TNF-alpha (p<0.0001), and IL-1ß (p<0.0001), as proinflammatory cytokines in group II, as compared to their corresponding group I. Group II showed a significant increase in the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 than group I at (p<0.0001) and (p<0.0005) respectively. In addition there was a significant decrease in the anti-inflammatory adiponectin and an increase in the inflammatory leptin levels in group II at (p<0.0001) and (p<0.0001) respectively in comparison to group I. A high positive correlation has been observed between waist to hip ratio, leptin, TNF-α, IL-1-ß, IL-4 and IL-5 at (r=0.331, p<0.03), (r=0.559, p<0.001), (r=0.435, p<0.004), (r=0.509, p<0.001), (r=0.550, p<0.0015), in group II respectively and a high negative one with adiponectin at (r=-0.410, p<0.0001). We concluded that central obesity lowers adiponectin plasma level through increasing proinflammatory adipokines such as TNF-α, IL-1ß, leptin. Further studies are needed to explore the positive correlation we found between central obesity and the anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 known to be associated with bronchial asthma.