Inflammatory Molecular Mediators and Pathways Involved in Vascular Aging and Stroke: A Comprehensive Review

Abstract

There is an increase in the incidence of cardiovascular diseases with aging and it is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. The main cardiovascular pathologies include atherosclerosis, myocardial infarction, hypertension and stroke. Chronic inflammation is one of the significant contributors to the age-related vascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to understand the molecular mechanisms of the persistent inflammatory conditions occurring in the blood vessels as well as the signaling pathways involved. Herein, we performed an extant search of literature involving PubMed, ISI, WoS and Scopus databases for retrieving all relevant articles with the most recent findings illustrating the potential role of various inflammatory mediators along with their proposed activated pathways in the pathogenesis and progression of vascular aging. We also highlight the major pathways contributing to age-related vascular disorders. The outlined molecular mechanisms, pathways and mediators of vascular aging represent potential drug targets that can be utilized to inhibit and/or slow the pathogenesis and progression of vascular aging.

Keywords: Cardiovascular; atherosclerosis; inflammation; inflammatory mediators; stroke; vascular aging.