Aging and immunity to tuberculosis: prolonged survival of old mice infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis by adoptive immunization with memory-immune T lymphocytes

This study shows that memory immune T lymphocytes, harvested from young (3-month-old) mice infected intravenously with Mycobacterium tuberculosis and then exposed to protracted chemotherapy with isoniazid, are capable of adoptively protecting old (24 month) mice from a subsequent fatal challenge infection. Survival of such adoptively protected animals was prolonged, but did not extend beyond the mean survival time of uninfected old control mice. During this time the passively transferred memory T cell population retained their functional capacity to protect against subsequent tuberculosis infection. These data indicate, therefore, that reconstitution of decayed cell-mediated antimicrobial immunity in old mice in vivo with memory T cells is technically feasible, although the life span of the animal is not extended over that of control animals. They indicate, moreover, that the memory T cells remain functional in what some reports have considered a suppressive environment and show further that the macrophages with which the infused T cells interact in the aged host remain functionally able to express acquired resistance.