Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Normal ageing is associated with an impaired systemic immune response contributing to an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases. The aim of this study was to compare the lymphocyte phenotype in human skin from old and young healthy subjects. Skin samples from donors were used for explant cultures before flow cytometric analysis. Our results depicted a higher proportion of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>4<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> and a lower proportion of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>8<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> among <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>3<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> T cells, a decreased proportion of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>45<jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">RA</jats:styled-content><jats:sup>+</jats:sup> naive T cells (3.5 ± 1.9% vs 22.9 ± 11.1%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> ≤ 0.007) and an upregulation of the expression of <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>39 and <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">PD</jats:styled-content>1 on <jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>3<jats:sup>+</jats:sup><jats:styled-content style="fixed-case">CD</jats:styled-content>4<jats:sup>+</jats:sup> T cells (25.1 ± 8.5% vs 12.5 ± 8.5%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> ≤ 0.003, 68.8 ± 11.6% vs 50.0 ± 11.3%, <jats:italic>P</jats:italic> ≤ 0.01, respectively) in the skin of old subjects. These findings could explain a reduced generation of long‐lived memory T cells and an impaired antitumoral response in the skin of the elderly.</jats:p>