Defective T lymphocytes in old mice. Diminished production of mature c-myc RNA after mitogen exposure not attributable to alterations in transcription or RNA stability.

To gain further insight into the mechanism of age-associated loss of T cell proliferative responses to mitogenic lectins, we measured c-myc specific mRNA accumulation in Con A-stimulated cultures of spleen cells from old and young mice using Northern blot and S1 nuclease protection analyses. Aging led to a consistent decline (an average of approximately 60%) in the level of c-myc mRNA in stimulated cells. The time course for c-myc RNA accumulation was similar for old and young mice. Nuclear runoff experiments showed that mitogen stimulation leads to an equivalent increase in transcription of the c-myc gene in T cells from old and young mice. Furthermore, in the presence of 5,6-dichlorobenzimidazole riboside, a selective inhibitor of RNA polymerase II, c-myc mRNA decayed with equal kinetics in cells from mice of different ages. These results show that lymphocytes from aged mice exhibit defects in gene expression very early in the activation process and suggest that these deficits may involve, at least for some genes, alterations in post-transcriptional processing.