Although many studies have reported age-specific changes in selected cardiovascular (CV) markers, few have analyzed the simultaneous changes that occur in the cardiac, metabolic, immune and growth factor axis with healthy aging.

To assess the relationship between CV parameters and circulating biomarkers with aging.

We prospectively recruited 150 healthy volunteers, of whom 44 were excluded due to reported illness on a comprehensive health questionnaire or the presence of CV disease on screening. Echocardiography and vascular Doppler were performed in all participants as per international guidelines, with Pulse Wave Velocity (PWV) calculated as the path length traveled divided by transit time of the aortic pulse wave. All cardiac-specific biomarkers, including NT-proBNP and GDF-15 were undertaken in the Abbott Core Laboratory, cytokines and growth factors were assessed using a 48-plex Luminex bead kit and comprehensive lipid profile with a Vertical Auto Profile lipid test.

There was a wide age range, from 20 to 95 years, 45% females with a mean body mass index of 24.1±3.1kg/m² and systolic blood pressure of 118±13mmHg. Among CV ultrasound parameters, average E’ showed the highest correlation with age (r²=0.55, P<0.001) with the highest significant correlation on each diagnostic group, as shown in Table 1. Partial correlation mapping was used to represent the complex relationships between variables most correlated with age (Figure 1). PWV, a measure of arterial stiffness appeared to be well correlated to E/A, a parameter of ventricular relaxation and GDF-15, which has been associated with CV mortality. On multivariate regression when considering the other modulating factors, insulin (r=0.29, P=0.001) in addition to age (r=0.75, P<0.001) explained the majority of the variance in PWV.

The study presents the interactions in CV and biomarker profiles with aging, with insulin emerging as a major modulator of PWV. PWV indicates Pulse wave Velocity; GDF-15, Growth-differentiation factor-15; NT-proBNP, N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; Gal-3, Galectin-3; CysC, Cystatin C; BUN, Blood Urea Nitrogen; HDL, high-density lipoprotein; CXCL, Chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand; CCL, Chemokine (C-C motif) ligand.