Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the age-related changes of cardiovascular disease risk factors and inflammatory markers in non-obese Korean women. Subjects were 112 women over 20 years old with body mass index (BMI) less than 30 kg/m2 and were divided into 3 groups (< 40 years, 40~59 years, > or = 60 years). Mean weight and BMI in the oldest group were significantly higher than those in the other 2 younger groups (P <0.05). Mean total cholesterol, triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol and apolipoprotein B/apolipoprotein A1 ratio (BAR) in the oldest group were significantly higher than those in the youngest group (P <0.05), and mean HDL-cholesterol of the oldest group was significantly lower than that of the youngest group (P <0.05). The older-aged group showed significantly higher mean values of atherogenic index (AI) and LDL/HDL ratio (P <0.05) than the respective younger-aged group, and AI was significantly correlated with age, nitric oxide and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (P <0.01). In addition, mean vascular cell adhesion molecule-l (VCAM-1) tended to be higher in the older-aged group than the younger group. Tumor necrosis factor-alpha, a proinflammatory maker, was significantly positively correlated with serum homocysteine, a cardiovascular disease risk factor (P <0.01). In addition, a significantly positive correlation was observed between C-reactive protein and BAR (P <0.01). Overall results suggested that the aging might affect the increase of cardiovascular disease risk factors including the serum lipid profiles, weight and BMI, and age-related increases of weight and BMI might play a role in changes in certain biomarkers of inflammation.

• Keywords: aging; body mass index; cholesterol; tumor necrosis factor-alpha; homocysteine