Antioxidants, inflammation and frailty [17.05.18]
Frailty among elderly people leads to an increased risk for negative health outcomes. The results of study published by an international consortium came up with the following key messages: (1) Women are more frequently psychologically frail, while men are more frequently cognitively frail. (2) The prevalence of both physical and cognitive frailty increased with age, whereas psychological frailty hardly did. (3) Antioxidants and self-reported health are identified as potential (bio)markers to detect persons at risk of becoming frail. (4) The identified biomarkers suggest the involvement of inflammation in frailty, especially for physical and cognitive frailty.
Photo Credit: Max Pixel
Original Study
Rietman ML1, Spijkerman AMW2, Wong A2, van Steeg H2, Bürkle A3, Moreno-Villanueva M3, Sindlinger T3, Franceschi C4, Grubeck-Loebenstein B5, Bernhardt J6, Slagboom PE7, Toussaint O8, Debacq-Chainiaux F8, Sikora E9, Gonos ES10, Breusing N11, Stuetz W12, Weber D13, Grune T13, Basso A14, Piacenza F14, Malavolta M14, Collino S15, Jansen EHJM2, Verschuren WMM16, Dollé MET17 (2018) Antioxidants linked with physical, cognitive and psychological frailty: Analysis of candidate biomarkers and markers derived from the MARK-AGE study. Mech Ageing Dev. 2018 Apr 30. pii: S0047-6374(18)30025-3. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2018.04.007. [Epub ahead of print]
Author information
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Electronic address: liset.rietman@rivm.nl.
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
- Molecular Toxicology Group, Department of Biology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany.
- CIG-Interdepartmental Center "L. Galvani", Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
- Research Institute for Biomedical Aging Research, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
- BioTeSys GmbH, Esslingen, Germany.
- Department of Molecular Epidemiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands.
- URBC-NARILIS, University of Namur, Namur, Belgium.
- Laboratory of the Molecular Bases of Ageing, Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland.
- National Hellenic Research Foundation, Institute of Biology, Medicinal Chemistry and Biotechnology, Athens, Greece.
- Department of Applied Nutritional Science/Dietetics, Institute of Nutritional Medicine, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
- Institute of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition, University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany.
- Department of Molecular Toxicology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE), Nuthetal, Germany.
- Translational Research Center of Nutrition and Ageing, IRCCS-INRCA, Ancona, Italy.
- Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences SA, Lausanne, Switzerland.
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, The Netherlands.
- National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands; Department of Molecular Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA.
Abstract
Frailty among elderly people leads to an increased risk for negative health outcomes. To prevent frailty, we need a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms and early detection of individuals at risk. Both may be served by identifying candidate (bio)markers, i.e. biomarkers and markers, for the physical, cognitive, and psychological frailty domains. We used univariate (Rank-ANOVA) and multivariate (elastic net) approaches on the RASIG study population (age range: 35-74 years, n = 2220) of the MARK-AGE study to study up to 331 (bio)markers between individuals with and without frailty for each domain. Biomarkers and markers identified by both approaches were studied further regarding their association with frailty using logistic regression. Univariately, we found lower levels of antioxidants, including β-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin, in those who were physically, cognitively or psychologically frail. Additionally, self-reported health was worse in these three frail groups. Multivariately, we observed lower levels of β-cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin in the cognitively frail. Levels of these carotenoids were inversely associated with the risk of being cognitively frail after adjusting for confounders. Antioxidants and self-reported health are potential (bio)markers to detect persons at risk of becoming frail. The biomarkers identified may indicate the involvement of inflammation in frailty, especially for physical and cognitive frailty.
