Alterations to the Frequency and Function of Peripheral Blood Monocytes and Associations with Chronic Disease in the Advanced-Age, Frail Elderly

BACKGROUND: Circulating myeloid cells are important mediators of the inflammatory response, acting as a major source of resident tissue antigen presenting cells and serum cytokines. They represent a number of distinct subpopulations whose functional capacity and relative concentrations are known to change with age. Little is known of these changes in the very old and physically frail, a rapidly increasing proportion of the North American …