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Page 2 of 9 Nemtsova et al. Vessel Plus 2018;2:27 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2574-1209.2018.48

aging” and indicators of oxidant-antioxidant systems in different age groups allows us to make an assumption about the
significant influence of the oxidative status on the status of vascular age, especially in the older age group persons.

Keywords: Hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, oxidative stress, vascular aging

INTRODUCTION
A significant increase in the proportion of older people in the population of developed countries is
accompanied by an increase in mortality from the main diseases of old age-diseases of the cardiovascular
system, malignant neoplasms, neurodegenerative processes, reduced resistance to infection and diabetes
mellitus.

According to the United Nations Organization prognosis, by 2025 the number of people over 60 will reach
1.2 billion (15% of the world’s total population). Therefore, the concept of healthy aging, developed in 2001
by the United Nations Organization, is classified as one of the highest priority areas of medicine.

Aging is considered to be a natural physiological process. At the same time, there are data which
demonstrate that physiological aging is observed in only 3%-6% of the human population while in other
cases accelerated aging is observed. Aging is a biological process that develops with age and manifests as a
gradual decrease in the adaptive capabilities of the organism. These changes can play a significant role in
the development of different pathologies.

Medico-biological studies involving elderly, old people and centenarians are recognized as necessary to
identify age-associated risk factors and specific markers that would optimize therapy for age-associated
diseases, especially taking into consideration that cardio-vascular mortality remains high, despite
therapeutic and prophylactic efforts. There is also a need to develop new pathophysiological models for a
better understanding of cardiovascular risks (CVRs) based on new age-associated concepts.

Since age is a marker of the cumulative effect of risk factors and the overall integral index of the
development of many chronic diseases [cardiovascular diseases (CVD), type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM),
[1]
malignant diseases], Nilsson et al. proposed the concept of “early vascular aging”, which is a new concept
for studying patients with high CVR or patients with early family manifestations of cardiovascular events.
“Vascular age” (VA) generally includes many determinants, the main ones of which are: endothelial
dysfunction, pulse wave velocity (PWV), central arterial pressure and carotid intima-media complex
thickness (CIMCT). These parameters can be considered as “tissue biomarkers” of vascular lesions, which
may be more sensitive than “circulating biomarkers” (e.g., C-reactive protein, hyperglycemia, dyslipidemia)
and in combination with classical risk factors show better additional results predicting cardiovascular
[2]
complications . At present, the Framingham scale and the European scale for assessing the 10-year risk
of cardiovascular mortality (SCORE) are widely used, in which age is one of the most important CVR
[3]
determinants and is associated with a number of morphological and functional changes in vessels .

As knowledge accumulates, it is becoming increasingly evident that aging and major chronic age-related
[4]
diseases have the same basic molecular and cellular mechanisms . It is believed that in the first place they
are associated with mild chronic systemic inflammation. To denote this phenomenon a group of scientists
[5]
led by Franceschi et al. proposed the term “inflammaging”. Today inflammaging is a widely accepted
theory of aging. Global age-related systemic inflammation in many organs is involved in the pathogenesis
of the most associated diseases, but until now it has not been fully determined whether these conditions
are the cause or consequence of age-related systemic inflammation. Inflammation is one of the central
pathogenetic mechanisms at all stages of development of atherosclerosis and its complications. What