Key result
Aging drives vascular remodeling, arterial stiffness, and endothelial dysfunction independent of atherosclerosis.
This review highlights the morphological and structural alterations in aging vessels, emphasizing microvessel loss, intimal thickening, and elastin degradation as key drivers of age-related vascular dysfunction.
Vascular aging effects warrant consideration separate from atherosclerosis in elderly patients; leaves open whether modulating remodeling alters outcomes.
Among age-related diseases, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases are major causes of death. Vascular dysfunction is a key characteristic of these diseases wherein age is an independent and essential risk factor. The present work will review morphological alterations of aging vessels in-depth, which includes the discussion of age-related microvessel loss and changes to vasculature involving the capillary basement membrane, intima, media, and adventitia as well as the accompanying vascular dysfunctions arising from these alterations.
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Xu et al. (2017) conducted a review in Vascular aging.
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