Circulating Interleukin-6 (but Not Other Immune Mediators) Associates with Criteria for Fried's Frailty among Very
Gilberto Santos Morais Junior1, Diego Ignacio Valenzuela Perez2, Audrey Cecília Tonet-Furioso3
1Health Faculty, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil.
Methods:
One hundred and sixty-one very old patients (aged ≥80 years) devoid of cognitive decline were eligible for analyses. Clinical and biochemical data along with physical and cognitive assessments encompassing dual-energy X-ray scans and hand dynamometry were adopted to investigate frailty criteria, while circulating immune mediators (IFNγ, IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, and TNFα) were assessed using high-throughput flow cytometry.
Results:
Preliminarily, IL-6 correlated positively with waist-to-hip ratio and C-reactive protein and negatively with glycemia. In analyses controlled for these factors, serum levels of IL-6 were comparatively augmented among the very old participants with reduced grip strength (OR = 3.299; 95% CI 1.08-6.09; p=0.032) and among those with slow walk speed (OR = 2.460; 95% CI 1.16-7.05; p=0.022).
Conclusions:
Our study shows a strong negative correlation of IL-6 levels with Fried's frailty components of grip strength and walk speed in very old adults, regardless of confounding factors.
