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Increased systemic inflammation and altered distribution of T-cell subsets in postmenopausal women

AIM: To investigate markers of systemic inflammation in pre- and postmenopausal women and identify possible predictors of systemic inflammation with menopause. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 69 healthy women between 45- and 60 years. Blood samples were collected to assess leukocyte subsets and pl...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Abildgaard, Julie, Tingstedt, Jeanette, Zhao, Yanan, Hartling, Hans Jakob, Pedersen, Anette Tønnes, Lindegaard, Birgitte, Dam Nielsen, Susanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7310708/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32574226
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235174
Descripción
Sumario:AIM: To investigate markers of systemic inflammation in pre- and postmenopausal women and identify possible predictors of systemic inflammation with menopause. METHODS: Cross-sectional study of 69 healthy women between 45- and 60 years. Blood samples were collected to assess leukocyte subsets and plasma cytokines. MRI and DXA scans were performed to assess body composition. Through uni- and multivariate analyses, follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), visceral fat mass and age were evaluated as predictors of systemic inflammation in relation to menopause. RESULTS: Postmenopausal women tended to have higher leukocyte counts (5.4 x10(9) vs. 4.9 x10(9) cells/l, p = 0.05) reflected in increased total lymphocytes (1.8 x10(9) vs. 1.6 x10(9) cells/l, p = 0.01) and monocytes (0.5 x10(9) vs. 0.4 x10(9) cells/l, p = 0.02), compared to premenopausal women. Increased visceral fat mass was a strong predictor of high leukocyte subsets. Postmenopausal women had higher plasma TNF-α (2.24 vs. 1.91 pg/ml, p = 0.01) and IL-6 (0.45 vs. 0.33 pg/ml, p = 0.004) compared to premenopausal women and high FSH was a significant predictor of increased plasma TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6. Menopause was further associated with increased T-cells (1,336 vs. 1,128 cells/μl, p = 0.04) reflected in significantly higher counts of exhausted-, senescent-, and memory CD4+ T-cell subsets. CONCLUSIONS: Menopause is associated with increased systemic inflammation as well as exhausted- and senescent T-cells. We suggest, that both increased visceral fat mass and declining sex hormone levels might contribute to postmenopausal systemic inflammation and calls for further large-scale studies to confirm these findings.