Surface markers and transendothelial migration of dendritic cells from elderly subjects Peter Pietschmann a,b,c, *, Philipp Hahn a , Stefan Kudlacek d , Ranjeny Thomas e , Meinrad Peterlik c a Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Aging Research Langoburdenstrasse 122, A-1220 Vienna, Austria b Department of Rheumatology, University of Vienna, Wa ¨hringer Gu ¨rtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria c Department of General and Experimental Pathology, University of Vienna, Wa ¨hringer Gu ¨rtel 18-20, A-1090 Vienna, Austria d Department of Medicine, Hospital Barmherzige Bru ¨der; Vienna, Austria e Department of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia Received 9 July 1999; received in revised form 25 October 1999; accepted 23 November 1999 Abstract Age-related changes of immune functions have been extensively investigated in both humans and animal models; nevertheless, the literature on potential alterations of dendritic cells, potent antigen presenting cells responsible for initiating immune responses, with aging is very scarce. We studied the immuno-phenotype of peripheral blood dendritic cells of elderly and young subjects by three-color flow cytometry. In addition, the capacity of transendothelial migration, an important step in inflammatory reactions, of peripheral blood dendritic cells of elderly subjects was investigated in an in vitro model. The expression of HLA-DR in the peripheral blood dendritic cells of the elderly subjects was significantly decreased when compared to the young control subjects. The expression of various other surface markers was similar in the young and elderly subjects. The ability of transendothelial migration of dendritic cells was found to be unimpaired in the elderly subjects. Both in the young and elderly subjects a significantly higher expression of CD29, CD86, HLA-DR, and HLA-DQ in the dendritic cells that had migrated through the endothelium in comparison to nonadherent, nonmigrating cells was found. In the migrating dendritic cells of the elderly subjects a significantly increased expression of CD11c was observed, whereas the expression of CD54 was significantly enhanced in the migrating dendritic cells of the young subjects only. In conclusion, our results demonstrate intact functions and a normal immunophenotype of dendritic cells derived from elderly subjects. Dendritic cells thus seem to be functional and therefore are not responsible for the well-known decline of T cell functions with aging. © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dendritic cells; Endothelium; Transendothelial migration; Surface markers; Peripheral blood; Elderly subjects; Aging * Corresponding author. Tel.: +43-1-40400-5122; fax: +43-1-40400-5130. E-mail address: peter.pietschmann@akh-wien.ac.at (P. Pietschmann) Experimental Gerontology 35 (2000) 213–224 0531-5565/00/$ – see front matter © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S0531-5565(00)00089-3