Our arteries become more rigid with age, and COVID-19 may not help
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Covid-19 seems to accelerate the aging of blood vessels, but perhaps only in women.
The infection was previously linked to cardiovascular complications, such as heart disease, but the way it has this effect is not entirely clear. To find out more, Rosa Maria Bruno at the University of Paris in France and her colleagues recruited 2,390 people, aged 50 on average, from 16 countries – including the United Kingdom and the United States – between September 2020 and February 2022.
Some of them had been tested positive for Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, or had antibodies against him, although he was not vaccinated, a sign that they had been infected. The others had only been tested negative for the virus and had no sign of previous infection.
The health of their arteries was evaluated by measuring the speed at which a wave of pressure has passed between the carotid artery in their necks and the femoral arteries in their legs. It is a measure of the rigidity of the artery, which naturally increases with age, with less flexible arteries increasing the risk of heart disease.
Researchers found that among women in the study, a known infection of SARS-COV-2 was linked to more rigid arteries. It also seemed to increase in parallel with the severity of their infection. For example, women hospitalized with COVID-19 were a vascular age that was about five years older than their non-infected counterparts, going to 7.5 years among people admitted to intensive care.
Researchers have checked other factors that can influence the stiffness of the arteries, such as smoking and obesity.
But none of these effects occurred in men. Previous research suggests that women react more strongly to infections than men and are less able to compose their immune response, which could lead to harmful inflammation. Bruno says she expected to see a certain difference between the sexes, but not as much.
The results could also shed light on the long covids, which seems to be more common in women. During a six-month follow-up, the rigidity of the arteries of women had improved slightly, but was still particularly high in the complications linked to the persistent COVID-19. “Here, we have shown that there is something measurable in the blood vessels that corresponds to the symptoms of long patients,” explains Bruno.
Some of the people of the unnacked group may have unconsciously had a slight infection, affecting the validity of the results.
Nevertheless, Vassilios Vassiliou at the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom claims that the study is robust and could help identify people with a long covid. “Study is the first major international multicenter survey to demonstrate that COVVI-19 is associated with accelerated vascular aging,” he said. “The results can also contribute to a better mechanistic understanding of post-Cavid-19 syndrome, potentially paving the way for targeted pharmacological interventions.”
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