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SYSTEMATIC REVIEW article

Front. Immunol.
Sec. T Cell Biology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2025.1475871

Systematic review and quantitative meta-analysis of age-dependent human T-lymphocyte homeostasis

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Research Center of Model-Informed Drug Development, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia
  • 2 Marchuk Institute of Numerical Mathematics (RAS), Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 3 Modeling & Simulations Decisions FZ-LLC, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
  • 4 Quantitative Medicines LLC, Boston MA, United States
  • 5 Institute for Computer Science and Mathematical Modelling, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia
  • 6 Moscow Center of Fundamental and Applied Mathematics at INM RAS, Moscow, Moscow Oblast, Russia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objective: To evaluate and quantitatively describe age-dependent homeostasis for a broad range of total T-cells and specific T-lymphocyte subpopulations in healthy human subjects.Methods: A systematic literature review was performed to identify and collect relevant quantitative information on T-lymphocyte counts in human blood and various organs. Both individual subject and grouped (aggregated) data on T-lymphocyte observations in absolute and relative values were digitized and curated; cell phenotypes, gating strategies for flow cytometry analyses, organs from which observations were obtained, subjects' number and age were also systematically inventoried. Age-dependent homeostasis of each T-lymphocyte subpopulation was evaluated via a weighted average calculation within pre-specified age intervals, using a piece-wise equal-effect meta-analysis methodology.Results: In total, 124 studies comprising 11722 unique observations from healthy subjects encompassing 20 different T-lymphocyte subpopulationstotal CD45+ and CD3+ lymphocytes, as well as specific CD4+ and CD8+ naïve, recent thymic emigrants, activated, effector and various subpopulations of memory T-lymphocytes (total-memory, central-memory, effector-memory, resident-memory)were systematically collected and included in the final database for a comprehensive analysis. Blood counts of most T-lymphocyte subpopulations demonstrate a decline with age, with a pronounced decrease within the first 10 years of life. Conversely, memory T-lymphocytes display a tendency to increase in older age groups, particularly after ~50 years of age. Notably, an increase in T-lymphocyte numbers is observed in neonates and infants (0 -1 year of age) towards less differentiated T-lymphocyte subpopulations, while an increase into more differentiated subpopulations emerges later (1 -5 years of age).A comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis of T-lymphocyte age-dependent homeostasis in healthy humans was performed, to evaluate immune T-cell profiles as a function of age and to characterize generalized estimates of T-lymphocyte counts across age groups. Our study introduces a quantitative description of the fundamental parameters characterizing the maintenance and evolution of T-cell subsets with age, based on a comprehensive integration of available organspecific and systems-level flow cytometry datasets. Overall, it provides the most up-to-date view of physiological T-cell dynamics and its variance and may be used as a consistent reference for gaining further mechanistic understanding of the human immune status in health and disease 1

    Keywords: Immune aging, T-Lymphocytes, Systematic review, Meta-analysis, healthy subjects

    Received: 08 Aug 2024; Accepted: 07 Jan 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 Kulesh, Peskov, Helmlinger and Bocharov. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Victoria Kulesh, Research Center of Model-Informed Drug Development, I.M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University, Moscow, Russia

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.