Regenerating the Thymus to Treat Age-Related Autoimmunity

Autoimmune diseases are caused by a range of malfunctions in the configuration of the immune system that lead it to attack the patient's own tissues, causing chronic inflammation at the least and eventually fatal damage at the worst. Most incidence of autoimmune disease is not very age-related, but aging does bring a rising level of autoimmunity as the immune system becomes increasingly dysfunctional and ineffective, falling into the state known as immunosenescence. One contributing cause of immune aging is a limited and diminishing supply of new immune cells, and one potential approach to treatment is to restore the thymus so as to increase the pace of production of immune cells: We tend to focus on rejuvenating the aging immune system's specific immunity to pathogens because the loss of this ability is more often acutely life-threatening, as can be seen in the terrifying rise of influenza-associated pneumonia hospitalization and death rates beginning around age 65. But there is also a substantial rise in autoimmunity with age, leading to greater incidence of specific autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, along with a less specific rise in autoimmune reactivity in the aging immune system, which is seen in the rising frequency of autoantibodies even in people with no overt autoimmune disorder. These may be linked to the rising inflammatory tone with age, and possibly to the increase in cancer, atherosclerosis, and neurodegeneration with age. While their...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs