Age-related modulation of plasmatic beta-Galactosidase activity in healthy subjects and in patients affected by T2DM

• Published in: Oncotarget Vol. 8; no. 55; pp. 93338 - 93348
• Main Authors: Spazzafumo, Liana, Mensà, Emanuela, Matacchione, Giulia, Galeazzi, Tiziana, Zampini, Lucia, Recchioni, Rina, Marcheselli, Fiorella, Prattichizzo, Francesco, Testa, Roberto, Antonicelli, Roberto, Garagnani, Paolo, Boemi, Massimo, Bonafè, Massimiliano, Bonfigli, Anna Rita, Procopio, Antonio Domenico, Olivieri, Fabiola
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Impact Journals LLC 07.11.2017
• Subjects: Research Paper: Gerotarget (Focus on Aging); inflammaging; Gerotarget; cellular senescence; type 2 diabetes; aging; beta galactosidase activity
• ISSN: 1949-2553; 1949-2553
• DOI: 10.18632/oncotarget.21848

β-Galactosidase (β-Gal) activity has been the most extensively utilized biomarker for the detection of cellular senescence. It can be measured also in plasma, and few recent evidence showed an altered plasmatic β-Gal activity in patients affected by some age-related diseases (ARDs). Since T2DM is one of the most common ARDs, we aimed to investigate if plasmatic β-Gal activity is modulated in T2DM patients and if "age" could affect such modulation. To gain mechanistic insights we paralleled this investigation with the evaluation of β-Gal activity in young and senescent endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured in normo- and hyper-glycaemic environment. A significant age-related increase of plasmatic β-Gal activity was observed in healthy subjects (n. 230; 55-87 years), whereas the enzymatic activity was significantly reduced in T2DM patients (n. 230; 55-96 years) compared to healthy subjects. β-Gal activity detectable both in cells and in the culture medium was significantly increased in senescent cells compared to the younger ones, both under normo- and hyper-glycaemic condition. However, the hyper-glycaemic condition was not associated with an increased β-Gal activity in milieu compared to normo-glycaemic condition. Overall our data reinforce the notion that plasmatic β-Gal activity could be a systemic biomarker of aging, whereas T2DM patients are characterized by a different age-releated trend.