Cytomegalovirus Exposure in the Elderly Does Not Reduce CD8 T Cell Repertoire Diversity.

ABSTRACT: With age, the immune system becomes less effective, causing increased susceptibility to infection. Chronic CMV infection further impairs immune function and is associated with increased mortality in the elderly. CMV exposure elicits massive CD8⁺ T cell clonal expansions and diminishes the cytotoxic T cell response to subsequent infections, leading to the hypothesis that to maintain homeostasis, T cell clones are expelled from the repertoire, reducing T cell repertoire diversity and diminishing the ability to combat new infections. However, in humans, the impact of CMV infection on the structure and diversity of the underlying T cell repertoire remains uncharacterized. Using TCR β-chain immunosequencing, we observed that the proportion of the peripheral blood T cell repertoire co

SUBMITTER: Lindau P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6321841 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature