Genetics of cell interactions in aged mice: age-related decline in capacity of parental cells or environment to induce allogeneic effects on F1 lymphocytes

In order to ascertain whether the process of aging would affect various aspects of genetic control of cell-cell interactions in mice, studies were initiated to examine the capacities of lymphoid cells and host lymphoid tissues of parental mice of varying ages to induce allogeneic effects of primed lymphocytes of young F1 donor origin. These studies demonstrate that with increasing age, both parental cells and parental environment gradually lose the capacity to influence antibody responses via the allogeneic effect. This age-related decline in induction of allogeneic effects could be attributed to 1) dysfunction or loss of allogeneic effect-inducing cells from lymphoid populations of aged mice, and 2) a change in the homing pattern of transferred immunocompetent cells to lymphoid tissues in the aged environment.