Impact of age on the homing potential of 89 Zr-radiolabelled CD8+ T cells

TY - JOUR

T1 - Impact of age on the homing potential of 89 Zr-radiolabelled CD8+ T cells

AU - Bystrom, Jonas

AU - Pereira Da Costa, Melissa

AU - Minino, Amaia

AU - Qureshi, Ahad

AU - Keeling, George P.

AU - Pham, Truc T.

AU - Sunassee, Kavitha

AU - Carroll, Elizabeth

AU - Garrod-Ketchley, Conor

AU - Schroth, Johannes

AU - Tsang, Victoria

AU - T. M. de Rosales, Rafael

AU - Terry, Samantha Y.A.

AU - Henson, Sian M.

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2025.

PY - 2025/7/3

Y1 - 2025/7/3

N2 - The ability of CD8+ T cells to protect against infections and malignant transformations declines with age. Emerging technologies, such as total body positron emission tomography (PET) and radiotracers with long half-lives, offer new approaches to assess long-term cellular functional deficits in vivo. In this study, we radiolabelled human CD8+ T cells from both young and old individuals with zirconium-89 (⁸⁹Zr) and evaluated their distribution in vivo. ⁸⁹Zr-labelled CD8+ T cells were injected intravenously into NOD scid gamma mice, and their whole-body migration was tracked using PET imaging. Longitudinal PET imaging revealed that CD8+ T cells from older individuals accumulated in tissues at a slower rate compared to those from younger individuals and may have caused greater tissue damage. This impaired migration was associated with decreased cortactin expression and increased cholesterol levels in aged T cells, both of which have the potential to hinder cellular motility. This study established a method for labelling and tracking cryopreserved CD8+ T cells, though further research is needed to understand the differences in migratory behaviour between cells from young and older individuals.

AB - The ability of CD8+ T cells to protect against infections and malignant transformations declines with age. Emerging technologies, such as total body positron emission tomography (PET) and radiotracers with long half-lives, offer new approaches to assess long-term cellular functional deficits in vivo. In this study, we radiolabelled human CD8+ T cells from both young and old individuals with zirconium-89 (⁸⁹Zr) and evaluated their distribution in vivo. ⁸⁹Zr-labelled CD8+ T cells were injected intravenously into NOD scid gamma mice, and their whole-body migration was tracked using PET imaging. Longitudinal PET imaging revealed that CD8+ T cells from older individuals accumulated in tissues at a slower rate compared to those from younger individuals and may have caused greater tissue damage. This impaired migration was associated with decreased cortactin expression and increased cholesterol levels in aged T cells, both of which have the potential to hinder cellular motility. This study established a method for labelling and tracking cryopreserved CD8+ T cells, though further research is needed to understand the differences in migratory behaviour between cells from young and older individuals.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105010073034

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-025-09237-y

DO - 10.1038/s41598-025-09237-y

M3 - Article

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 15

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

IS - 1

M1 - 23801

ER -