Dynamic changes in innate immune and T cell function and composition at the nasal mucosa across the human lifespan

Abstract

The very young and very old are at increased risk of serious infections, including pneumonia. This may relate to changes in the immune system as young children have limited immunological memory, while immunosenescence, inflammaging and a decreased pool of naive immune cells are described with advanced age. How the immune system changes with age at mucosal surfaces, from where infections frequently develop, is not very clear as access to human tissue samples is limited. Therefore, we aimed to assess the composition and activation state of the immune system at the human mucosa. Here, we profiled nasal immune cells from 207 individuals between 1 to 80 years old using flow cytometry. Neutrophil and monocyte functionality were measured using whole blood assays. Levels of thirty nasal cytokines were measured from nasal lining fluid. Nasopharyngeal colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae was assessed using classical microbiology and associated with immune responses. We found that young children have a striking paucity of granulocytes at the nasal mucosa compared to adults. In addition, T cell numbers at the nasal mucosa decreased progressively with age and were almost absent in older adults. While nasopharyngeal colonization by Streptococcus pneumoniae was associated with elevated levels of inflammation it had a limited effect on nasal immune composition, including levels of monocytes and neutrophils. These results show that the immune system at the nasal mucosal surface changes drastically with age and provides explanations for the increased susceptibility to infections in young and old age.\n\nSignificance statementHow the immune system changes with age is an intensive area of research, but has been primarily studied in blood. However, blood poorly reflects the immune system at the mucosa, from where infections develop. This manuscript provides a first characterization of how the composition and function of the immune system in the upper respiratory tract changes with age, providing explanations for increased susceptibility to infection in the very young and old. Furthermore, by linking mucosal and systemic measurements with pneumococcal colonization, we observed that reduced monocyte and neutrophil responses associate with the increased burden of pneumococcal colonization in children. This study highlights the need to study the immune system also at other mucosal sites in the context of aging.