Relationships Between Inflammatory Biomarkers and Frailty

Inflammation underlies many diseases and previous research supports a role for some inflammatory markers to be associated with frailty. In a recent study with Prof David Le Couteur and colleagues from the ANZAC Institute, APAF conducted a large-scale screen using multiplexed immunoassays to quantitate 27 cytokines and chemokines from plasma of older men (>70years) in the CHAMP study “Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project”.

Blood serum was analysed for 27 cytokines, chemokines, and growth factors using the Bio-Plex Pro Human Cytokine 27-plex Assay kit which measures FGF basic, Eotaxin, G‐CSF, GM‐CSF, IFN‐γ, IL‐1β, IL‐1ra, IL‐2, IL‐4, IL‐5, IL‐6, IL‐7, IL‐8, IL‐9, IL‐10, IL‐12 (p70), IL‐13, IL‐15, IL‐17, IP‐10 (CXCL-10), MCP‐1 (MCAF), MIP‐1α, MIP‐1β, PDGF‐BB, RANTES, TNF‐α, and VEGF simultaneously from 50uL of serum..

From: Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Relationships Between Inflammatory Biomarkers and Frailty in Community-dwelling Older Men: The Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project

The studies findings confirm that IL-6 and IL-8 may be cross-sectionally associated with frailty. The authors concluded that frailty is specifically linked to IL-6 and IL-8 rather than simply representing a nonspecific pan-inflammatory condition.

Hsu B, Hirani V, Cumming RG, Naganathan V, Blyth FM, Wright FC, Waite LM, Seibel MJ, Handelsman DJ, Le Couteur DG. Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Relationships between Inflammatory Biomarkers and Frailty in Community-dwelling Older Men: the Concord Health and Ageing in Men Project. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A 2017. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glx142