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Background: Well-established reference values which take into account the influence of age on immune cell phenotype, and the impact of naïve or memory T cells on mortality have not been well defined in the elderly. Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the reference values for the peripheral number of total and naïve or memory CD4 and CD8 T cells in a healthy population in Italy, and to analyze whether the immune phenotype was associated with an increased risk of death among older adults. Methods: The number of total or naïve and memory CD4+ or CD8+ T cells was evaluated in the peripheral blood of 288 healthy people ranging in age from 20 to 107 years. Furthermore, to correlate peripheral immune phenotype with mortality rate after a 3-years follow-up, a retrospective analysis was performed on the results from those individuals aged >65 years at the time of the enrolment in the …