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Inflammation and ageing

Inflammation und Alterung

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Abstract

An enhanced inflammatory state – i.e. “inflammatory/pathogen burden” – in the elderly on the one hand results from physiological immunosenescence and on the other hand is modified by the individual immune history: the latter is determined by sequential infectious/pathogenic events (“multiple hits”). Immunosenescence may prompt ageing of other organs. Cardiac ageing can be assessed by analysing heart rate variability. We present our hypothesis that the increasing “inflammatory/pathogen burden” of each organism during a lifetime significantly contributes to the cardiac ageing process. This hypothesis is grounded on the fact that a characteristic feature of the ageing heart – a narrowed heart rate variability – can be experimentally induced in humans by an inflammatory stimulus (endotoxin).

Zusammenfassung

Das Konzept der Immunseneszenz geht davon aus, dass der lebenslange Antigenstress, dem jeder Organismus ausgesetzt ist, die Abnutzung der spezifischen Immunantwort sowie die basale Aktivierung der innaten Immunantwort bedingt. Dabei determinieren sequentielle infektiöse und inflammatorische Ereignisse die individuelle Inflammationslast eines Organismus: es wird vermutet, dass im Laufe des Lebens durch eine Vielzahl infektiöser bzw. inflammatorischer Ereignisse („multiple hits“) ein entzündlicher Stress oder „inflammatory/pathogen burden“ zustande kommt, der zum Anstieg der inflammatorischen Parameter wesentlich beiträgt. Derartige erhöhte Entzündungsparameter kennzeichnen Personen, die ein erhöhtes Risiko für kardiovaskuläre Erkrankungen wie Arteriosklerose oder koronare Herzkrankheit oder andere alterstypische Erkrankungen wie Demenz, Alzheimer Erkrankung oder Osteoporose haben. Ein Einfluss der Inflammationslast auf das „kardiale Alter“ ist noch nicht dargestellt. Das „kardiale Alter“ lässt sich anhand der Herzfrequenzvariabilität abschätzen. Wir verfolgen die Hypothese, dass die mit dem Alter zunehmende Inflammationslast („inflammatory/pathogen burden“) wesentlich zum kardialen Altern beiträgt. Für eine Beziehung zwischen Entzündung und „kardialem Alter“ sprechen Untersuchungen, bei denen gesunden Probanden Endotoxin in niedriger Dosierung verabreicht wurde: ein solcher proinflammatorischer Stimulus führt bei den Probanden zu einer reversiblen Einschränkung der Herzfrequenzvariabilität, einem wesentlichen Marker der Herzalterung.

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  1. Universitätsklinik und Poliklinik für Innere Medizin III, Klinikum der Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, Ernst-Grube-Straße 40, 06097, Halle, Germany

    U. Müller-Werdan

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Müller-Werdan, U. Inflammation and ageing. Z Gerontol Geriat 40, 362–365 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-007-0486-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00391-007-0486-7

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