Vascular function in the aging human brain during muscle exertion

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2022

Abstract

To determine how brain oxygenation is stably maintained during advancing age, cerebral oxygenation and hemoglobin were measured real-time at 10 Hz using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) at rest (30 seconds) and during a 10-repeated handgrip strength test (30 seconds) for 834 adults (M/F = 45/55%) aged 20-88 y. The amplitude of cerebral hemodynamic fluctuation was reflected by converting 300 values of % oxygen saturation and hemoglobin of each 30-second phase to standard deviation as indicatives of brain oxygenation variability (BOV) and brain hemodynamic variability (BHV) for each participant. Both BOV (+21-72%) and BHV (+94-158%) increased during the maximal voluntary muscle exertions for all age levels (alpha < 0.05), suggesting an increased vascular recruitment to maintain oxygen homeostasis in the brain. Intriguingly, BHV was >100 folds for both resting and challenged conditions (alpha < 0.001) in >80% of adults aged above 50 y despite similar BOV compared with young age counterparts, indicating a huge cost of amplifying hemodynamic oscillation to maintain a stable oxygenation in the aging brain. Since vascular endothelial cells are short-lived, our results implicate a hemodynamic compensation to emergence of daily deficits in replacing senescent endothelial cells after age 50 y.

Keywords

Frailty, Vascular Function, Muscle Strength, Endothelial Function, NIRS

Publication Title

Aging-us

Divisions

1234

Funders

Body Composition Technologies Ltd Pte,University of Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan

Volume

14

Issue

9

Publisher Location

6666 E QUAKER ST, STE 1, ORCHARD PARK, NY 14127 USA

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