http://ecam.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/4/2/181
(very impressive!)
As far as apoptosis, several studies reveal that cells from aged individuals are more resistant to apoptosis vis a vis cells from younger subjects (97–99). In particular this phenomenon has been observed in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (lymphocytes and monocytes). A peculiar feature of immunosenescence (the aging process of the immune system) is indeed the accumulation of long-living memory cells that are highly resistant to apoptosis (100,101). Such an accumulation, together with a decreased output of virgin lymphocytes from bone marrow leads to a decreased capacity of the immune system to cope with viral and bacterial infections and consequently to increased morbility and mortality. In order to restore, at least partially, immune system function and delay immunosenescence, many different strategies have been proposed [for a review see (102)]. One strategy is to avoid the accumulation of long-living memory lymphocytes. Indeed, these cells, generated mainly in response to chronic exposure to common viral antigens such as Epstein–Barr virus and Cytomegalovirus, are weakly responding cells but do produce inflammatory cytokines (103–105). Thus, it is legitimate to predict that their deletion would lead to an improvement of the immune system in elderly individuals.[omissis] Perhaps, administration of dietary compounds such as curcumin can protect organisms not only against proliferative pathologies (cancer chemoprevention) as discussed, but also can maintain the susceptibility to apoptosis of memory lymphocytes. Thus curcumin can theoretically contrast the decline of immune function and eventually the process of aging. Once again this possibility must be experimentally tested, since levels of curcumin outside the gastrointestinal tract could be insufficient to induce such an effect.
