Inflammaging and the sex-frailty paradox

IF 3.4 3区医学 Q2 GERIATRICS & GERONTOLOGY

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research Pub Date : 2025-10-07 DOI:10.1007/s40520-025-03181-7

Beatrice Arosio, Greta Salafia, Evelyn Ferri, Daniela Mari, Eleonora Tobaldini, Giovanni Vitale, Nicola Montano

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Abstract

Background

The “sex-frailty paradox” is a concept that indicates how women despite being more frail are less susceptible to death than men. The roots of this paradox may lie in the different combination of biological, behavioural, and social factors between the two sexes. The aim of this study is to deepen our understanding of the different biological mechanisms underlying frailty and longevity in men and women, thus shedding further light on the sex-frailty paradox.

Methods

We studied 452 subjects (315 women and 137 men) stratifying them by age (≤ 80, 81–99 and ≥ 100 years) and sex. A 47-item frailty index was calculated. Plasma concentrations of inflammatory markers were analysed by next-generation ELISA.

Results

Women aged ≤ 80 years were less frail while those aged ≥ 100 years were more frail than their male counterparts. Interestingly, the 81-99-year-old group showed similar frailty degree between females and males. Most of the biomarkers increased with age in both sexes, while being associated differently with frailty, indicating that there are specific biological roots in the two sexes that influence frailty.

Conclusions

Trying to delineate the unique molecular profile of older women and men becomes essential for understanding the mechanisms underlying the sex-frailty paradox. Further research on sex-specific determinants is required to enhance our understanding of aging and develop effective strategies to promote health and longevity in both sexes.

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炎症和性脆弱悖论。

背景：“性别脆弱悖论”是一个概念，表明女性尽管更脆弱，但比男性更不容易死亡。这种矛盾的根源可能在于两性之间生理、行为和社会因素的不同组合。这项研究的目的是加深我们对男性和女性脆弱和长寿背后的不同生物学机制的理解，从而进一步揭示性别脆弱悖论。方法：我们研究了452例受试者（女性315例，男性137例），按年龄（≤80岁、81-99岁和≥100岁）和性别进行分层。计算了47项脆弱指数。采用新一代ELISA法分析血浆炎症标志物浓度。结果：≤80岁的女性较男性虚弱，≥100岁的女性较男性虚弱。有趣的是，在81-99岁的人群中，女性和男性表现出相似的虚弱程度。在两性中，大多数生物标志物随着年龄的增长而增加，但与脆弱性的关联不同，这表明两性中存在影响脆弱性的特定生物学根源。结论：试图描述老年女性和男性的独特分子特征对于理解性别脆弱悖论的机制至关重要。需要对性别特异性决定因素进行进一步研究，以增强我们对衰老的理解，并制定有效的策略来促进两性的健康和长寿。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 医学-老年医学

CiteScore

7.90

自引率

5.00%

发文量

283

审稿时长

1 months

期刊介绍： Aging clinical and experimental research offers a multidisciplinary forum on the progressing field of gerontology and geriatrics. The areas covered by the journal include: biogerontology, neurosciences, epidemiology, clinical gerontology and geriatric assessment, social, economical and behavioral gerontology. “Aging clinical and experimental research” appears bimonthly and publishes review articles, original papers and case reports.