Blavatnik Institute, Dept. of Genetics, Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States.
Department of Pharmacology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada; Department of Medicine (Geriatric Medicine), Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada.
Mech Ageing Dev. 2021 Sep;198:111546. doi: 10.1016/j.mad.2021.111546. Epub 2021 Jul 26.
Frailty can be viewed as a state of physiological decline that increases susceptibility to adverse health outcomes. This loss of physiological reserve means that even small stressors can lead to disability and death in frail individuals. Frailty can be measured with various clinical tools; the two most popular are the frailty index and the frailty phenotype. Clinical studies have used these tools to show that women are frailer than men even though they have longer lifespans. Still, factors responsible for this frailty-mortality paradox are not well understood. This review highlights evidence for male-female differences in frailty from both the clinical literature and in animal models of frailty. We review evidence for higher frailty levels in female animals as seen in many preclinical models. Mechanisms that may contribute to sex differences in frailty are highlighted. In addition, we review work that suggests frailty may play a role in susceptibility to chronic diseases of aging in a sex-specific fashion. Additional mechanistic studies in preclinical models are needed to understand factors involved in male-female differences in frailty in late life.
虚弱可以被视为一种生理衰退的状态，增加了对不良健康结果的易感性。这种生理储备的丧失意味着，即使是很小的压力源也会导致虚弱个体的残疾和死亡。虚弱可以用各种临床工具来衡量；其中最流行的两种是虚弱指数和虚弱表型。临床研究已经使用这些工具表明，尽管女性的寿命更长，但她们比男性更虚弱。尽管如此，导致这种虚弱-死亡率悖论的因素还没有得到很好的理解。这篇综述强调了来自临床文献和虚弱动物模型的虚弱方面的男女差异的证据。我们回顾了许多临床前模型中观察到的女性动物中更高的虚弱水平的证据。强调了可能导致虚弱方面性别差异的机制。此外，我们还回顾了一些研究工作，这些研究表明，虚弱可能以性别特异性的方式在易患与衰老有关的慢性疾病方面发挥作用。需要在临床前模型中进行更多的机制研究，以了解与晚年男女虚弱差异相关的因素。
