Age-related declines and disease-associated variation in immune cell telomere length in a wild mammal.

ABSTRACT: Immunosenescence, the deterioration of immune system capability with age, may play a key role in mediating age-related declines in whole-organism performance, but the mechanisms that underpin immunosenescence are poorly understood. Biomedical research on humans and laboratory models has documented age and disease related declines in the telomere lengths of leukocytes ('immune cells'), stimulating interest their having a potentially general role in the emergence of immunosenescent phenotypes. However, it is unknown whether such observations generalise to the immune cell populations of wild vertebrates living under ecologically realistic conditions. Here we examine longitudinal changes in the mean telomere lengths of immune cells in wild European badgers (Meles meles). Our findings provide t

SUBMITTER: Beirne C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4182606 | biostudies-literature | 2014

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature