Impairment of the arteries is a product of sustained exposure to various deleterious factors and progresses with time; a phenomenon inherent to vascular aging. Oxidative stress, inflammation, the accumulation of harmful agents in high cardiovascular risk conditions, changes to the extracellular matrix, and/or alterations of the epigenetic modification of molecules, are all vital pathophysiological processes proven to contribute to vascular aging, and also lead to changes in levels of associated circulating molecules. Many of these molecules are consequently recognized as markers of vascular impairment and accelerated vascular aging in clinical and research settings, however, for these molecules to be classified as biomarkers of vascular aging, further criteria must be met. In this paper, we conducted a scoping literature review identifying thirty of the most important, and eight less important, biomarkers of vascular aging. Herein, we overview a selection of the most important molecules connected with the above-mentioned pathological conditions and study their usefulness as circulating biomarkers of vascular aging.
Keywords: cellular matrix; circulating biomarkers; epigenetics; inflammation; oxidative stress; vascular aging.
Copyright © 2021 Gopcevic, Gkaliagkousi, Nemcsik, Acet, Bernal-Lopez, Bruno, Climie, Fountoulakis, Fraenkel, Lazaridis, Navickas, Rochfort, Šatrauskienė, Zupkauskienė and Terentes-Printzios.