Inflammaging markers characteristic of advanced age show similar levels with frailty and dependency

Abstract

The improvement of life quality and medical advances has resulted in increased life expectancy. Despite this, health status commonly worsens in the last years of life. Frailty is an intermediate and reversible state that often precedes dependency and therefore, its identification may be essential to prevent dependency. However, there is no consensus on the best tools to identify frailty. In this sense, diverse molecules have been proposed as potential biomarkers. Some investigations pointed to an increased chronic inflammation or inflammaging with frailty, while others did not report such differences. In this work, we evaluated the circulating concentration of the inflammaging markers in adults and older adults (aged over 70 years) by ELISA and Luminex techniques. The Barthel Index was applied for the evaluation of dependency and Timed up-and-go, Gait Speed, Short Physical Performance Battery, Tilburg Frailty Indicator and Gerontopole Frailty Screening Tool were used for the identification of frailty. CRP, TNF-α, IL-6 and albumin concentrations were measured, and we found that elevated inflammation is present in older adults, while no differences with frailty and dependency were reported. Our results were consistent for all the evaluated frailty scales, highlighting the need to reconsider increased inflammation as a biomarker of frailty.

Macrophage‐fibroblast circuits in the spleen

“…This chronic systemic inflammation is most notably driven by elevated pro‐inflammatory cytokines in the circulation. IL‐6, for example, is normally low or non‐detectable in healthy young adults, but dramatically increased in the blood of individuals over 70 years 261 . Interestingly, splenic stroma obtained from aged mice produces more IL‐6 in vitro compared to stroma from younger mice, as stated in the previous section 240 .…”

The Association of Anti-Inflammatory Diet Ingredients and Lifestyle Exercise with Inflammaging

“…Systemic inflammation, and a high concentration of IL-6 and TNFα in particular, not only reduces albumin synthesis but also increases its degradation and promotes its transcapillary leakage. Decreased plasma albumin has been considered as a risk factor for nutritional deficiencies and frailty in the elderly [48,49]. Onem et al [49] showed the relationships between albumin concentration and cognitive and motor functions in patients from nursing homes.…”

Confounders in Identification and Analysis of Inflammatory Biomarkers in Cardiovascular Diseases

“…Aging is associated with increased levels of circulating cytokines and proinflammatory markers [27]. According to research, aging is linked to a state of persistent low-grade inflammation and elevated serum levels of inflammatory markers such as IL-6, CRP, and TNF, a process known as "inflammaging" [28].…”

“…Aging increased serum levels of IL-6, CRP, and TNF-α; women have CRP levels higher than men [27,28,32,35,36,38] Obesity Obese people had significantly higher levels of CRP, TNF-α, and IL-6 than non-obese people. [43,44] Epidemiological factors…”