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Posted on Jun 05, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Aging patients may be less able to repair blood vessels and arteries after acute injury, anti-aging physicians suggest.
Aging patients may be less able to repair blood vessels and arteries after acute injury, anti-aging physicians suggest.
Previous studies found that the aging population may be less tolerant of ischemia, which can result in increased risk of death and amputation.
A study presented at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Vascular Surgery examined the effects of aging on the regeneration of blood vessels and arteries in acute limb ischemia cases on both young and aged mice.
The study's author Dr Tormod S Westvik, a resident at the Yale University School of Medicine, said: "These results suggest that strategies to stimulate arteriogenesis may complement those that increase angiogenesis, thus may result in improved relief of ischemia.
"Based on the results in our study, we propose that further investigations should be aimed at improving the ability of older animals (and subsequently patients) to arrange these available components into functioning vessels, thus improving the outcome after acute ischemia."
