Lexicon
Inflammatory Markers
Definition
Systemic chronic inflammation is persistent, health-damaging, low-grade inflammation that plays a major role in immunosenescence and in the development and progression of many diseases. [1] Certain social, environmental, and lifestyle factors can promote systemic chronic inflammation that in turn leads to several of the leading causes of disability and mortality worldwide, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes mellitus, chronic kidney disease, and neurodegenerative disorders. [2] During ageing a chronic, sterile, low-grade inflammation called inflammaging develops and contributes to the pathogenesis of age-related diseases, and it is regarded as a marker of biological ageing, multimorbidity, and mortality risk. [3] [4]
How it works
Proposed mechanisms of inflammageing include central obesity, increased gut permeability, changes to microbiota composition, cellular senescence, NLRP3 inflammasome activation, oxidative stress from dysfunctional mitochondria, immune cell dysregulation, and chronic infections. [5] Senescent cells develop a senescence-associated secretory phenotype comprising pro-inflammatory cytokines, chemokines, and proteases that promotes chronic inflammation and tissue dysfunction. [6] Inflammageing is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, and clinical trials suggest that this association is causal, while it is also linked to chronic kidney disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia, and sarcopenia. [5]
Connected concepts
How it's measured
There are currently no recognized standard biomarkers to assess systemic chronic inflammation alone, so it is typically measured by combining biomarkers of acute inflammation and infection such as CRP, IL-6, and TNF-alpha. [1] Residual inflammation measured with high-sensitivity C-reactive protein remains strongly predictive of recurrent cardiovascular events even in statin-treated patients, and elevated hs-CRP in apparently healthy individuals identifies a higher-risk group in whom statin therapy reduces first major cardiovascular events even when LDL-cholesterol is normal. [7] Simple blood-count-derived ratios such as the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio have also emerged as inflammatory markers with prognostic value in some cancers. [8]
What levels mean
Higher levels of CRP
Community knowledge
## Inflammaging Framework
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- 1.Rasmussen LJH, Petersen JEV, Eugen-Olsen J. Soluble Urokinase Plasminogen Activator Receptor (suPAR) as a Biomarker of Systemic Chronic Inflammation. Front Immunol · 2021
- 2.Furman D, Campisi J, Verdin E, Carrera-Bastos P, Targ S, Franceschi C, Ferrucci L, Gilroy DW. Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span. Nat Med · 2019
- 3.Franceschi C, Garagnani P, Parini P, Giuliani C, Santoro A. Inflammaging: a new immune-metabolic viewpoint for age-related diseases. Nat Rev Endocrinol · 2018
- 4.Teissier T, Boulanger E, Cox LS. Interconnections between Inflammageing and Immunosenescence during Ageing. Cells · 2022
- 5.Ferrucci L, Fabbri E. Inflammageing: chronic inflammation in ageing, cardiovascular disease, and frailty. Nat Rev Cardiol · 2018
- 6.Zhang L, Pitcher LE, Prahalad V, Niedernhofer LJ, Robbins PD.
Community discussion
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