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. 1986 Apr;83(8):2488–2491. doi: 10.1073/pnas.83.8.2488

Frequency of 6-thioguanine-resistant T cells is inversely related to the declining T-cell activities in aging mice.

T Inamizu, N Kinohara, M P Chang, T Makinodan
PMCID: PMC323323  PMID: 3486421

Abstract

The frequency of clonable 6-thioguanine-resistant (6-TGr) splenic T cells increased moderately with age in female BALB/c mice ranging in age from 3 to 32 months; however, the correlation between the frequency of clonable 6-TGr cells and age was weak. Those clonable 6-TGr T cells were deficient in hypoxanthine/guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HGPRT) activity and sensitive to hypoxanthine/aminopterin/thymidine medium, as in the case of HGPRT-deficient L5178Y mouse lymphoma cells. When splenic T cells of individual aging mice were assessed simultaneously for the frequency of clonable 6-TGr T cells and for their ability to produce interleukin 2 or to proliferate in response to mitogenic stimulation, an inverse correlation was observed. These results indicate that the frequency of 6-TGr T cells is more closely related to physiologic age than chronologic age. This would mean that the frequency could be used as an index of physiologic age and that the T cells could serve as a cellular model relating gene alterations to physiologic age.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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