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The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging
The trace element zinc is essential for the immune system, and zinc deficiency affects multiple aspects of innate and adaptive immunity. There are remarkable parallels in the immunological changes during aging and zinc deficiency, including a reduction in the activity of the thymus and thymic hormon...
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Formato: | Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
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BioMed Central
2009
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Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19523191 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4933-6-9 |
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author | Haase, Hajo Rink, Lothar |
author_facet | Haase, Hajo Rink, Lothar |
author_sort | Haase, Hajo |
collection | PubMed |
description | The trace element zinc is essential for the immune system, and zinc deficiency affects multiple aspects of innate and adaptive immunity. There are remarkable parallels in the immunological changes during aging and zinc deficiency, including a reduction in the activity of the thymus and thymic hormones, a shift of the T helper cell balance toward T helper type 2 cells, decreased response to vaccination, and impaired functions of innate immune cells. Many studies confirm a decline of zinc levels with age. Most of these studies do not classify the majority of elderly as zinc deficient, but even marginal zinc deprivation can affect immune function. Consequently, oral zinc supplementation demonstrates the potential to improve immunity and efficiently downregulates chronic inflammatory responses in the elderly. These data indicate that a wide prevalence of marginal zinc deficiency in elderly people may contribute to immunosenescence. |
format | Text |
id | pubmed-2702361 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2009 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-27023612009-06-27 The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging Haase, Hajo Rink, Lothar Immun Ageing Review The trace element zinc is essential for the immune system, and zinc deficiency affects multiple aspects of innate and adaptive immunity. There are remarkable parallels in the immunological changes during aging and zinc deficiency, including a reduction in the activity of the thymus and thymic hormones, a shift of the T helper cell balance toward T helper type 2 cells, decreased response to vaccination, and impaired functions of innate immune cells. Many studies confirm a decline of zinc levels with age. Most of these studies do not classify the majority of elderly as zinc deficient, but even marginal zinc deprivation can affect immune function. Consequently, oral zinc supplementation demonstrates the potential to improve immunity and efficiently downregulates chronic inflammatory responses in the elderly. These data indicate that a wide prevalence of marginal zinc deficiency in elderly people may contribute to immunosenescence. BioMed Central 2009-06-12 /pmc/articles/PMC2702361/ /pubmed/19523191 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4933-6-9 Text en Copyright © 2009 Haase and Rink; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0) ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Review Haase, Hajo Rink, Lothar The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title | The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title_full | The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title_fullStr | The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title_full_unstemmed | The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title_short | The immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
title_sort | immune system and the impact of zinc during aging |
topic | Review |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2702361/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19523191 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1742-4933-6-9 |
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