Transcriptional Analysis Reveals Gender-Specific Changes in the Aging of the Human Immune System

Abstract

Aging and gender have a strong influence on the functional capacity of the immune system. In general, the immune response in females is stronger than that in males, but there is scant information about the effect of aging on the gender difference in the immune response. To address this question, we performed a transcriptomic analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells derived from elderly individuals (nonagenarians, n = 146) and young controls (aged 19-30 years, n = 30). When compared to young controls, we found 339 and 248 genes that were differentially expressed (p<0.05, fold change >1.5 or