ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Aging
Sec. Aging and the Immune System
Influence of circadian rhythm on the determination of the IMMune Age indeX (IMMAX)
Provisionally accepted
- Leibniz Research Centre for Working Environment and Human Factors (IfADo), Dortmund, Germany
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Introduction: To study the impact of immunosenescence on various biological processes the determination of the immune age has gained much interest in recent years. Based on easily determined five immune cell components we recently developed the IMMune Age indeX (IMMAX) as a biomarker for immunosenescence. However, the influence of the circadian rhythm of immune cell concentrations in peripheral blood on the determination of the IMMAX was unclear. Methods: Therefore, we conducted an experimental study with 50 participants aged 20 to 69 years and took blood samples at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. to determine the IMMAX over the day. Additionally, the chronotype of the study participants was assessed by D-MEQ questionnaire. Results: While individual immune cell ratios showed changes during the day, we determined no significant variability of the IMMAX score between the measurements. Interestingly, the individual chronotype influenced the diurnal rhythm of the IMMAX score with morning types showing a decrease of IMMAX values during the day. Conclusions: This longitudinal trial strengthens the IMMAX as a robust biomarker for the immune age independent from time of blood sampling.
Keywords: circadian, Chronotype, Immune age, immune cell, immunosenescence
Received: 01 Oct 2025; Accepted: 27 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Trebing, Bröde, Claus and Watzl. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Carsten Watzl, watzl@ifado.de
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