The action of aging upon coronary intima and renal microvasculature in USA and Andes populations.

Full lengths of right coronary artery obtained at autopsy and examined in hematoxylin and eosin stained paraffin sections sometimes reveal the presence of at least one instance of atheroma (YesA specimens). YesA specimens are nearly always those with generalized intimal fibroplasia, measured by excessive intimal thickness per smooth muscle cell. Accumulating evidence suggests that aging governs the progression of fibroplasia, and that this fibroplasia is what aging does to the coronary artery in preparation for atheroma. Hyalinization of renal arterioles was previously found to correlate strongly with the presence of coronary atheroma and with the progression of the fibroplasia of aging in race, sex, age matched comparisons of subjects within a population (forensic autopsies in New Orleans). The data reported here reveal the correlation of arteriolar hyalinization with fibroplasia and atheroma to persist in comparisons across geographically diverse populations. The outcome suggests that aging of coronary intima, in so far as it bears upon preparation for atheroma, may vary in rate between populations. This source of variation could offer clues about environmental factors that may modify rates of aging.