Are skin senescence and immunosenescence linked within individuals?
Open accessAbstract
With advancing age, many organs exhibit functional deterioration. The age‐associated accumulation of senescent cells is believed to represent one factor contributing to this phenomenon. While senescent cells are found in several different organ systems, it is not known whether they arise independently in each organ system or whether their prevalence within an individual reflects that individual's intrinsic aging process. To address this question, we studied senescence in two different organ systems in humans, namely skin and T cells in 80 middle‐aged and older individuals from the Leiden Longevity Study. Epidermal p16INK4a positivity was associated with neither CD4+ nor CD8+ T‐cell immunosenescence phenotype composites (i.e., end‐stage differentiated/senescent T cells, including CD45RA+CCR7‐CD28‐CD27‐CD57+KLRG1+ T cells). Dermal p16INK4a positivity was significantly associated with the CD4+, but not with the CD8+ immunosenescence composite. We therefore conclude that there is limited evidence for a link between skin senescence and immunosenescence within individuals.
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The presence of p16-positive cells in the skin, a marker of cellular senescence, is associated with markers of CD4+ T-cell senescence and biological age.
“The presence of p16-positive cells in the skin, which is a marker of cellular senescence, has been found to be associated with markers of CD4+ T-cell senescence and biological age.161,162”
From Inflammation and aging: signaling pathways and intervention therapies (2023) · cites this paper as [162]
The Introduction reports that dermal p16INK4a positivity was associated with CD4+ T-cell immunosenescence markers, and describes p16INK4a as a marker of cellular senescence. It also reports earlier evidence linking skin p16INK4a-positive cells to biological aging. The claim omits important limits on the CD4+ finding: epidermal positivity was not associated, and the dermal association was present only in CMV-negative participants. (LLM, conf=0.87)
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- Authors
- Waaijer, M. E. C., Goldeck, D., Gunn, D. A., van Heemst, D., Westendorp, R. G. J., Pawelec, G., & Maier, A. B.
- Affiliations
- Leiden University Medical Center (NL)
- University of Tübingen (DE)
- Unilever (United Kingdom) (GB)
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section Gerontology and Geriatrics Leiden University Medical Center Leiden The Netherlands
- University of Copenhagen (DK)
- King's College London (GB)
- The Royal Melbourne Hospital (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Maier, Andrea B.
- Venue
- Aging Cell
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2019-05-06
- Volume
- 18
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- e12956-e12956
- ISSN
- 1474-9718 (ISSN-L)
- 1474-9726
- PMC
- PMC6612632
- OpenAlex
- W2944399404
- Cited by
- 48
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 3
- FWCI
- 4.97
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Aging Cell (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- VU Research Portal (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Minerva Access (University of Melbourne) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- National University of Singapore (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
- Leiden Repository (Leiden University) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
- Novo Nordisk Fonden (17OC0027812)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Telomeres, Telomerase, and Senescence
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Aging › Genetics, Aging, and Longevity in Model Organisms
- Life Sciences › Immunology and Microbiology › Immunology › T-cell and B-cell Immunology
- Keywords
- skin aging, immunosenescence, T cell senescence, CD4+ T cells, CD8+ T cells, aging, Leiden Longevity Study
- MeSH terms
- Immunosenescence, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Cell Differentiation, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Phenotype, Skin, CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Skin Aging, Cellular Senescence, CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes, Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor p16
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