Resources and lymphocyte terminal maturity among older adults.

Abstract

Objective: Women’s financial resources were associated with more terminal maturity in natural killer lymphocytes, generally associated with loss of proliferative potential, during the “Great Recession”. This preregistered analysis expanded on that finding in a longitudinal design including both genders and examining the role of cytomegalovirus (CMV) serostatus. Method: Older adults (N = 138, 57% women) were assessed longitudinally during 2012–2017; including self-reported psychological, social, financial, and status-skill resources, CMV antibody titers and serostatus, and assessment of T and natural killer lymphocyte terminal maturity (LTM). Results: Neither total nor financial resources were associated with LTM. Adjusting only for age, more psychological resources (e.g., meaning, hope, humor) were associated with lower T LTM (percent: γ = −1.11 [−1.78, −.44]; number: γ = −.99 [−1.70, −.27]). There were no significant interactions with age, gender, or CMV serostatus; however, additionally adjusting for serostatus reduced the effect of psychological resources (percent: γ = −.41 [−93, .12]; number: (γ = −.40 [−.94, .13]). Conclusions: Outside the context of the “Great Recession”, psychological resources but not financial resources were associated with terminal maturity in T cells, a relationship related to CMV serostatus. Further studies in different and more diverse samples, and in different eras, are needed to understand what resources are most protective against immunological aging, when, and for whom.

Lifespan Socioeconomic Context Is Associated With Cytomegalovirus and Late-Differentiated CD8+ T and Natural Killer Cells: Initial Results in Older Adults

“…The current study used a subset of participants with SEC and immune data (N = 109) and therefore had less statistical power to detect smaller effects but remained powered to detect medium main effects (r = 0.25). In a simulated power analysis for simple mediation assuming medium effects (r = 0.25) between X and M (a path) and X and Y (c′ path) and medium-large effects (r = 0.46) between M and Y (b path), which is reasonable based on previous research (38,39), N = 109 is powered at 76% (45). In a simulated power analysis for moderation assuming medium effects (r = 0.25) between the predictors and outcome and between the interaction product term and the outcome, N = 109 is powered at 77% (46).…”

“…We hypothesized the following: (H1) lower SEC, particularly in childhood, will be associated with higher levels of late-differentiated immune cells, and (H2) CMV seroposi-tivity will mediate the association between lower SEC, particularly in childhood, and higher levels of immune aging. Last, previous work in this sample has demonstrated that CMV seropositivity is associated with higher levels of late-differentiated CD8 + T cells and NK cells (37)(38)(39). However, these previous investigations did not examine whether the association between CMV seropositivity and immune aging is equal across levels of lifespan SEC.…”

“…Other socioeconomic measures such as overall wealth may also be beneficial to examine in future. Although we tested CMV serostatus as one mediator, there are likely several pathways connecting socioenvironmental factors to aspects of immune aging, including social hallmarks of aging (10) such as greater stress exposure, lack of psychological resources (e.g., meaning, hope), and poorer health behaviorsall of which have also been linked to higher levels of immune aging (39,42,61,62). In addition, it may be fruitful in larger samples with sufficient power to test a serial mediation model that includes a pathway between childhood SEC and adulthood SEC (childhood SEC ➔ adulthood SEC ➔ CMV seropositivity ➔ immune aging).…”