Vitamin E Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Vitamin E, including details on benefits, dosage, supplements, antioxidants.

Vitamin E supplementation reverses the age-associated decrease in effective immune synapse formation in CD4+ T cells.

Ahmed T, Marko M, Wu D, Chung H, Huber B, Meydani SN

Nutritional Immunology Laboratory, Jean Mayer U.S. Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, 711 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. simin.meydani@tufts.edu

Aging is associated with impairment of T cell function. We demonstrate here that age-associated declines in T cell signaling are due to the inability to form effective immune synapses at the site of the T cell receptor and antigen interaction. On the basis of our previous research with vitamin E (VE), we hypothesized that VE supplementation of old CD4(+) T cells enhances effective immune synapse formation through increased translocation of signaling proteins. Using confocal microscopy, we found that when exposed to antigen-presenting cells, CD4(+) T cells from old mice have a lower percentage of effective immune synapses compared to those from young mice. Furthermore, we show that in vitro and in vivo VE supplementation increases the percentage of old CD4(+) T cells capable of forming a functional immune synapse. Further studies are under way to determine the mechanisms of age and VE-induced enhancement of effective immune synapse formation.

Published 8 March 2005 in Ann N Y Acad Sci, 1031: 412-4.
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