Changes in immune phenotype with age impaired survival: a longitudinal
approach in Alpine marmots
Abstract
Recent findings suggest that immunosenescence should not be considered
as a unidirectional deterioration, and that the remodeling of the immune
system with age could also be adaptive. Longitudinal studies on
immunosenescence in wild populations are scarce, and therefore,
processes like selective disappearance cannot be easily torn apart from
senescence. Using a long-term and longitudinal monitoring of a wild
population of Alpine marmots, we aimed to understand within and between
individual variation in the immune phenotype with age, in order to
improve our knowledge about the occurrence and the consequence of
immunosenescence in the wild. We tested, once controlled for a potential
selective disappearance, whether individuals’ immune function only
decreases as they age, as expected from the disposable soma theory, or
whether remodelling of the immune system does occur. Therefore, we
recorded the age-specific leukocyte concentration and counts in
repeatedly sampled dominant individuals and we tested the potential
changes with age as well as their association with survival
probabilities. The overall leukocyte concentration was stable with age,
but the lymphocyte count decreased, while the neutrophil count
increased, over the course of an individual’s life. The leukocyte counts
also predicted survival: at a given age, individuals with fewer
lymphocytes but more neutrophils were more likely to die. Longitudinal
studies, like the present one, are required to properly understand the
patterns and consequences of immunosenescence in the wild.