In women, aging is evidenced by physiological hormonal alterations that trigger changes in body composition, emergence of chronic low-grade inflammation, which is an important pre-disposition to the development of chronic diseases such as Systemic Arterial Hypertension (SAH) and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Although it is a strong pro-inflammatory nature disorder, little is known about how body composition interferes with inflammatory markers in diabetic and hypertensive elderly women. Therefore, this study's objective was to evaluate the inflammation in diabetic and hypertensive elderly women, and their association with fat mass. It comprised the evaluation of 144 women aged between 60 and 80 years old, diagnosed with SAH and T2DM, assisted by Family Health Units in Vitória da Conquista, Bahia, Brazil. According to body mass index (BMI), these women were classified as either eutrophic or overweight. In the eutrophic females, the IL-10 / IL-17A ratio was increased when compared to those overweight. In addition, IL-17 correlated negatively with HDL and positively with total cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, VLDL, and glucose in the eutrophic ones, but not in the overweight individuals. IL-10 also showed differences in the correlation pattern observed between the groups, since for this eutrophic cytokine, it presented positive correlation with the waist circumference, waist/height ratio, and negative association with IL-17, while in overweight elderly women, it was not observed such pattern. Hence, this work demonstrates how the amount of fat mass interferes with the balance of cytokines, especially IL-10 and IL-17, and how it may exert an effect on biochemical parameters and risk factors associated with T2DM and SAH.
Keywords: Body composition; Inflammation; Systemic arterial hypertension; Type 2 diabetes mellitus.
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