Background: Chronic pancreatitis is an inflammatory disorder of the pancreas that is associated with accelerated mortality for patients suffering from this disease. The association between chronic inflammation and accelerated biological ageing has been well described and is often referred to as "inflammageing". In this review we seek to determine how systemic inflammation in chronic pancreatitis may contribute to an accelerated ageing phenotype.
Methods: A systematic literature search with a predefined search protocol was performed on Medline, Embase and Cochrane libraries according to the PRISMA guidelines.
Results: The initial search identified 499 studies. After title, abstract and full text screen of the search results, 20 were included for further evaluation. In the 20 remaining articles 41 inflammatory mediators were identified - mainly involved in chronic inflammation, fibrosis and particularly cardinal features of inflammageing such as sarcopenia and osteoporosis.
Conclusion: Chronic pancreatitis is associated with elevated levels of inflammatory mediators many of which are associated with an accelerated ageing phenotype and may explain some of the clinical sequelae of this disease.
Keywords: Ageing; Chronic pancreatitis; Cytokine; Inflammation; Systematic review.
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