Aging-associated inflammation in healthy Japanese individuals and patients with Werner syndrome

Minor inflammation-driven aging (inflammaging) has been proposed to explain human aging mechanism. To study the inflammatory condition associated with normal human aging, highly sensitive CRP (hsCRP) was examined in the sera collected from 217 healthy Japanese individuals aged between 1 and 100 years and 41 mutation-proven Japanese Werner syndrome (WS) patients. The serum hsCRP was assayed by ELISA. The serum hsCRP level increased significantly (p<0.001) with normal aging from both sexes. The serum hsCRP was significantly elevated in WS (mean +/- SE: 11.0 +/- 1.6 mu g/ml) compared with age-matched normal population (1.3 +/- 0.3 mu g/ml, p<0.001) and normal elderly population ages between 71 and 100 years (4.2 +/- 0.7 mu g/ml, p<0.001). Both normal aging and WS were associated with minor inflammation that can be evaluated by serum hsCRP. WS may be a good candidate to study inflammaging. (C) 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.