Research Paper Volume 12, Issue 3 pp 2952—2973

Tfh cell subset biomarkers and inflammatory markers are associated with frailty status and frailty subtypes in the community-dwelling older population: a cross-sectional study

Ming-Juan Yin1, *, , Yong-Zhen Xiong2, *, , Xiu-Juan Xu3, , Ling-Feng Huang3, , Yan Zhang3, , Xiao-Jun Wang3, , Liang-Chang Xiu3, , Jing-Xiao Huang3, , Ting-Yu Lian3, , Dong-Mei Liang3, , Jin-Mei Zen3, , Jin-Dong Ni3, ,

  • 1 Department of Preventive Medicine, Dongguan Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China
  • 2 School Clinic, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China
  • 3 Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Dongguan Key Laboratory of Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health, Guangdong Medical University, Dongguan, China
* Equal contribution

Received: October 17, 2019       Accepted: January 19, 2020       Published: February 8, 2020      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102789
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2020 Yin et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

We conducted a cross-sectional study investigating community-dwelling older population to determine association between immunoscenescence marker, inflammatory cytokines and frailty. Frailty status was classified with 33-item modified frailty index and latent class analysis was applied to explore the latent classes (subtypes) of frailty. In multivariable analysis, higher Tfh2 cells were associated with a higher risk of frailty [1.13(1.03–1.25)] in females, but a lower risk of cognitive and functional frail [0.92(0.86–0.99)] and physiological frail [0.92(0.87–0.98)]. Additionally, a greater risk of multi-frail and physiological frail correlated with low Tfh1 [0.77(0.60–0.99); 0.87(0.79–0.96)] and Tfh17 cells [0.79(0.65–0.96); 0.86(0.78–0.94)], respectively. Higher B cells were associated with decreased frailty/pre-frailty both in females [0.89(0.81–0.98)] and males [0.82(0.71–0.96)], but did not correlate with frailty subtypes. Regarding inflammatory markers, participants in the TGF-β 2nd quartile showed a decreased risk of pre-frailty/frailty in females [0.39(0.17–0.89)] and psychological frail [0.37(0.16–0.88)], compared with those in the top tertile. Moreover, we found participants in the 2nd tertile for IL-12 levels showed a decreased risk of physiological frail [0.40 (0.17–0.97)]. Our study highlights the importance of Tfh cell subsets and inflammatory markers in frailty in a sex-specific manner, particularly in terms of frailty subtype.

Abbreviations

FI: frailty index; Tfh cell: follicular helper T cells; OR: Odds ratio; CI: confidence interval.