Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, USA.
Gerontology. 2017;63(5):393-400. doi: 10.1159/000477402. Epub 2017 Jun 1.
Apart from major illnesses and chronic afflictions, the elderly experience lesser ailments, such as muscle weakness, cold intolerance, and transient memory lapses. Physical signs in the aged include wrinkled skin and the slow healing of skin abrasions. These ailments and signs are grouped together because they may be due in part to an age-linked, waning microcirculation. A reduced capillary density (CD) throughout the body of aged people and animals has been reported in over 40 papers. The reduced CD is due in turn to declining levels of angiogenic growth factors (AGFs) throughout the body during old age, as documented in 7 reports in the literature. From this perspective, old age is a deficiency state of AGFs, much like the reduced testosterone levels in elderly males. The above data on reduced CD and AGFs are the basis for the "angiogenesis hypothesis of aging", whose corollary suggests pro-angiogenesis therapy for symptoms and signs of old age. Several AGFs are now available in recombinant forms (e.g., vascular endothelial growth factor) and have been used safely in animal experiments and in short-term clinical trials.
除了重大疾病和慢性疾病外，老年人还会经历一些小病，如肌肉无力、怕冷和短暂的记忆力减退。老年人的身体特征包括皮肤皱纹和皮肤擦伤的愈合缓慢。这些疾病和症状被归为一类，部分原因是与年龄相关的、逐渐减弱的微循环。超过 40 篇论文报道了老年人和动物全身毛细血管密度（CD）降低。正如文献中 7 份报告所记录的，这反过来又归因于老年时全身血管生成生长因子（AGFs）水平下降。从这个角度来看，老年是 AGFs 的缺乏状态，很像老年男性睾酮水平降低。关于 CD 和 AGFs 减少的上述数据是“衰老的血管生成假说”的基础，其推论表明针对衰老的症状和体征进行促血管生成治疗。现在有几种 AGF 以重组形式（例如，血管内皮生长因子）可用，并已在动物实验和短期临床试验中安全使用。
