Presenter(s): Elise Kronquist
Faculty Mentor(s): Ashley Walker
Oral Session 1 C
Aging leads to arterial stiffening, likely due to increased advanced glycation end products (AGEs), oxidative stress, and collagen, which contribute to vascular dysfunction. Pyridoxamine, a form of vitamin B6, prevents age-related arterial stiffening. We hypothesized that pyridoxamine treatment will prevent AGEs formation in aged mouse aortas, while not affecting aortic wall structure.
Eight aged C57BL6 mice (18 mo) were treated with pyridoxamine in their water for six months and compared with eight vehicle control old mice (normal drinking water, 18 mo) and 6 untreated young mice (6 mo). Histological samples were collected. Aorta samples were quantified for AGEs via immunofluorescence. Aorta samples were also stained with Verheoff-Van Gieson and wall area was measured.
Young mice trended toward fewer AGEs than old control mice in the aorta (0.01 ± 0.003 vs 0.1 ± 0.05 AU), but the pyridoxamine treated animals were not different than old control or young mice (0.05 ± 0.02; p=0.11). The overall thickness of the aortic wall was unchanged between young, old treated, and old control subjects (area: 25840 ± 3388μm^2 vs. 34617 ± 5232μm^2 vs. 34165 ± 3377μm^2; p=0.3). Treatment did not change adventitial thickness between young, old control, and old treated groups (area: 21352 ± 2695μm^2 vs. 26102 ± 5006μm^2 vs. 30099 ± 4587μm^2; p=0.4).
These results indicate pyridoxamine treatment does not prevent the formation of AGEs or change the wall structure of the aorta in aged mice. Further studies are needed to identify the mechanism by which pyridoxamine prevents age-related arterial stiffening.