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. 2022 Sep 26;11(10):1101. doi: 10.3390/pathogens11101101

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© 2022 by the authors.

Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

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Structural and cellular changes in the aging lung. Age-associated changes in the composition and function of pulmonary cells is characterized by increased inflammation and oxidative stress driving impaired lung homeostasis, leading to increased susceptibility to M.tb infection. Structural and Cellular Changes: Increased alveolar space, inflammation, oxidative stress (ATs, Mφ), superoxide production (Mφ), apoptosis (ATs), fibrogenic responses, antigen presentation (DCs), CD4:CD8 ratio and senescence (ATs). Decreased mucociliary clearance, mucous production, alveolar septae, elasticity, phagocytosis (Mφ, PMNs, DCs), migration and proliferation (DCs, T cells), and naïve T cell number. Changes in ECM, surfactant composition (ATs), cytokine production, and chemotaxis (PMNs). A complete description of the cellular composition and functional changes in the aging lung is reviewed in detail elsewhere [11,21,27]. Abbreviations: ECM (extracellular membrane), ATs (alveolar epithelial cells), Mφ (macrophages), PMNs (neutrophils), DCs (dendritic cells), M.tb (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). This illustration was created with BioRender (https://biorender.com/), accessed on 18 September 2022.