Aging Changes In The Heart And Blood Vessels
The human aging process has a number of effects on the different bodily systems and their functionality.
As far as the cardiovascular system is concerned, aging causes restricted flow of blood in the lungs and also reduces the strength of the heartbeat.
- How Badly Are Your Arteries Hardening With Aging?
- What Happens To The Inner Layer Of Your Arteries As You Become Older?
- The Atherosclerotic Process
- The Battle is Not Over Yet
- The blood itself changes slightly with age.
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Aging Changes In The Heart And Blood Vessels
The "aging process" causes specific cardiovascular changes. This leads to reduced physical and mental ability. Aging is also a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Scientists a have learned great deal about the interaction of aging with cardiovascular disease related changes and have identified risk factors for both heart and vascular aging, and heart disease. This allows the development of strategies to prevent or to lessen the impact of both aging and disease. This series provides information which will enlighten you about how aging, disease, and their interaction impact on your heart and arteries. Initial articles will discuss how aging affects your heart and blood vessels.
Subsequent articles will teach you about risk factors for cardiovascular disease, how aging interacts with risk factors and what you can try to do in an attempt to preserve your cardiovascular health.
Introduction
"How Badly Are Your Arteries Hardening With Aging?" we discussed large artery structure and function, and we explained why vascular aging is a risk factor for high blood pressure. We also told you how you could assess your individual vascular stiffness by determining your pulse pressure from your blood pressure numbers. In this article we will show you that in addition to vascular hardening, other risky changes occur within blood vessels with aging. Presently these changes are NOT LABELED AS A MEDICAL CONDITION, but they play a role as a risk factor in a severe condition called atherosclerosis. And, they may be related to vascular stiffening as well.
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The Vascular Intima and Function of The Endothelial Cells
In addition to the arteries themselves becoming stiffer with aging, the inner most of the arteries' three layers, the intima, becomes thickened. Refer to the following illustration as we discuss this process.
The three layers of the arterial wall are, from outside to inside, the adventia, the media and the intima. A flat layer of cells, called endothelial cells, forms a boundary between the blood in the lumen, or cavity, and the innermost layer of the arterial wall. Beneath the inner surface of the endothelial cell layer lies a sub endothelial space, which is separated from the vascular media by a basement membrane. Thus, the intima is composed of three components: endothelial cells, the sub endothelial space and the basement membrane. A vital function of the endothelial cells, because of their position and composition, is to form a barrier to prevent certain substances from the blood from entering the vessel wall. Another specialized function of these endothelial cells is to react to mechanical forces such as blood pressure, and blood flow generated by the heart's action.
Endothelial cells react by releasing substances into the vessel wall that act on the vascular smooth muscle cells in the middle layer of the arterial wall. You may recall that these smooth muscle cells contain contractile proteins that change their configuration in order to bring about a shortening, or contraction, of the cell. This action changes the tone, or firmness, of these vascular smooth muscle cells. When endothelial cells sense an injury signal they produced other substances that signal vascular muscle cells to change their "nature". In response to such signals the vascular muscle cells dismantle their contractile machinery, begin to produce their own substances, and march toward the site of vascular injury in the inner area of the intima where they reposition themselves just beneath the endothelial cell layer. In reaction to injury endothelial cells also produce substances that signal to circulating blood cells, making it easy for these cells to stick to the endothelial cells, instead of flowing through the vessel smoothly.
Functions of Endothelial Cells:
1. Form a barrier to prevent some substances from entering arterial wall
2. Sense mechanical forces and release substances which act to change the "contractile tone" of myocytes in medial layer.
3. Sense vascular injury:
a. produce substances to change the "nature" of vascular muscle cells causing them to migrate to the area of injury
b. signal blood cells to stick to endothelial cells