ArticleAging cell2009
B-cell diversity decreases in old age and is correlated with poor health status.
Article in Aging cell, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 230 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
230 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 443 citations in OpenAlex.
- Immunosenescence: A systems-level overview of immune cell biology and strategies for improving vaccine responses.Experimental gerontology · 2019Pooled it
- Depletion of B cells rejuvenates the peripheral B-cell compartment but is insufficient to restore immune competence in aging.Aging cell · 2019Trial
- Physiological IgM class catalytic antibodies selective for transthyretin amyloid.The Journal of biological chemistry · 2014Trial
- A two-step model of age-associated autoreactivity: B cell-intrinsic aging meets inflammaging.GeroScience · 2026Review
- What Do We Know About Immune System Aging from Human and Animal Studies?International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Frailty-related vulnerability and immune cell profiles in younger adults with schizophrenia: an exploratory study.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- 2026 Update on the Management of Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma.American journal of hematology · 2026Review
- Respiratory virus immune response in the aged host.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2026Review
- Article
- The impact of B-cell reconstitution on mRNA vaccine responses in allogeneic stem cell transplant recipients.Clinical & translational immunology · 2026Article
- HuBIE: The human blood immunome encyclopedia of TCRs and BCRs in bloodstream infections and cancer.Frontiers in immunology · 2026Article
- Characteristic Changes in the Immune Landscape of Aging Liver: From Basic Mechanism to Clinical Transformation.Journal of immunology research · 2026Review
- Immunosenescence and organoids: pathophysiology and therapeutic opportunities.Immunity & ageing : I & A · 2025Review
- Are an Aging Gut and a Decrease in Butyrate Production the Reasons for Atherosclerosis?International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Aging in Granulomatosis with Polyangiitis and Microscopic Polyangiitis: From Pathophysiology to Clinical Management.Drugs & aging · 2025Review
- Integrating cuproptosis and immunosenescence: A novel therapeutic strategy in cancer treatment.Biochemistry and biophysics reports · 2025Review
- Article
- Immunological biomarkers of aging.Journal of immunology (Baltimore, Md. : 1950) · 2025Review
- Peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets of Chinese adults with liver steatosis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Features in Elderly Patients: Case-Based Review.Journal of clinical medicine · 2025Review
170 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 6 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Older people suffer from a decline in immune system, which affects their ability to respond to infections and to raise efficient responses to vaccines. Effective and specific antibodies in responses from older individuals are decreased in favour of non-specific antibody production. We investigated the B-cell repertoire in DNA samples from peripheral blood of individuals aged 86-94 years, and a control group aged 19-54 years, using spectratype analysis of the IGHV complementarity determining region (CDR)3. We found that a proportion of older individuals had a dramatic collapse in their B-cell repertoire diversity. Sequencing of polymerase chain reaction products from a selection of samples indicated that this loss of diversity was characterized by clonal expansions of B cells in vivo. Statistical analysis of the spectratypes enabled objective comparisons and showed that loss of diversity correlated very strongly with the general health status of the individuals; a distorted spectratype can be used to predict frailty. Correlations with survival and vitamin B12 status were also seen. We conclude that B-cell diversity can decrease dramatically with age and may have important implications for the immune health of older people. B-cell immune frailty is also a marker of general frailty.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.