Lower Levels of PPAR- γ Slow Thymic Atrophy with Age, Improve Immune Function

Researchers here demonstrate that mice with lower levels of PPAR-γ exhibited reduced atrophy of the thymus with age, and as a consequence also exhibit improved measures of immune function. The thymus is where T cells mature in the final stages of their creation before being released to duties in the body. Unfortunately it has evolved to atrophy, its active tissue replaced with fat tissue. This initially occurs immediately following childhood in a process called thymic involution, and then the remaining functional thymic tissue steadily declines over the course of later life. This places an ever-lower limit on the supply of new T cells, and in turn that limit contributes to immune system aging. In later life, T cells become dysfunctional or overspecialized faster than their ranks can be augmented with new, fully functional cells. Thus there is interest in finding ways to rejuvenate the thymus, such as via tissue engineering of new thymic tissue, or delivering signals to the thymus that instruct it to regenerate, as in the case of work on FOXN1. The research here is of the latter type, an investigation of the controlling mechanisms that determine whether the thymus atrophies into fat tissue or continues to maintain active tissue of the sort that can host maturing T cells. Unfortunately, PPAR-γ can't just be globally reduced, as the effects are fairly ugly - when it occurs in humans due to rare mutation of the gene, the outcome is the condition known as type 3 familial ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs