Department of Human Physiology, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon, United States.
Department of Kinesiology University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States.
Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol. 2024 Mar 1;326(3):H689-H704. doi: 10.1152/ajpheart.00592.2023. Epub 2024 Jan 12.
With advancing age, the cerebral vasculature becomes dysfunctional, and this dysfunction is associated with cognitive decline. However, the initiating cause of these age-related cerebrovascular impairments remains incompletely understood. A characteristic feature of the aging vasculature is the increase in stiffness of the large elastic arteries. This increase in arterial stiffness is associated with elevated pulse pressure and blood flow pulsatility in the cerebral vasculature. Evidence from both humans and rodents supports that increases in large elastic artery stiffness are associated with cerebrovascular impairments. These impacts on cerebrovascular function are wide-ranging and include reductions in global and regional cerebral blood flow, cerebral small vessel disease, endothelial cell dysfunction, and impaired perivascular clearance. Furthermore, recent findings suggest that the relationship between arterial stiffness and cerebrovascular function may be influenced by genetics, specifically and genotypes. Given the strength of the evidence that age-related increases in arterial stiffness have deleterious impacts on the brain, interventions that target arterial stiffness are needed. The purpose of this review is to summarize the evidence from human and rodent studies, supporting the role of increased arterial stiffness in age-related cerebrovascular impairments.
随着年龄的增长，脑血管功能失调，这种功能失调与认知能力下降有关。然而，这些与年龄相关的脑血管损伤的起始原因仍不完全清楚。衰老血管的一个特征是大动脉弹性的增加。大动脉弹性的增加与脑血管中脉搏压和血流脉动的升高有关。来自人类和啮齿动物的证据都支持大动脉弹性增加与脑血管损伤有关。这些对脑血管功能的影响范围广泛，包括全脑和局部脑血流减少、脑小血管疾病、内皮细胞功能障碍和血管周围清除功能受损。此外，最近的研究结果表明，动脉僵硬与脑血管功能之间的关系可能受到遗传因素的影响，特别是 和 基因型。鉴于动脉僵硬与年龄相关的增加对大脑有不良影响的证据确凿，因此需要针对动脉僵硬的干预措施。本综述的目的是总结来自人类和啮齿动物研究的证据，支持动脉僵硬增加在与年龄相关的脑血管损伤中的作用。
