How vaccines work on the background of the aging immune system

The elderly exhibit reduced responses to vaccinations, leaving them more susceptible to preventable infectious diseases such as influenza and pneumonia. It has been unclear as to the specific changes in the aging immune system that contribute to this decline, thus we have developed a mouse model to examine this phenomenon and determine why it occurs and how it can be overcome. Our ultimate goal is to determine how to enhance vaccine efficacy for elderly populations. (C) 2006 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.