Gerontology & Geriatric Research

Abstract

Positive Association between Circulating CD34-Positive Cells and Urinary Sodium Excretion in Elderly Japanese Men: The Nagasaki Islands Study

Yuji Shimizu, Shimpei Sato, Jun Koyamatsu, Hirotomo Yamanashi, Mami Tamai, Koichiro Kadota, Kazuhiko Arima, Hironori Yamasaki, Noboru Takamura and Takahiro Maeda

Increasing evidence points to involvement of circulating Endothelial Progenitor Cells (EPCs) in maintenance of the vasculature. On the other hand, daily salt intake is reportedly associated with vascular damage such as seen in atherosclerosis and arteriosclerosis. However, no study has investigated the association between circulating endothelial progenitor cells and salt intake in relation to vascular status. To investigate the association between EPCs (CD34-positive cells) and estimated total volume of daily urinary sodium excretion, which is known to be a marker of daily salt intake, we conducted a cross-sectional study of 94 elderly Japanese men aged 60-89 years who underwent general health checks. There was a slightly but significantly positive association between number of circulating CD34- positive cells and daily urinary sodium excretion especially for the participants without a history of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD). A simple analysis of the relationship between these two variables yielded r=0.21 (P=0.039) for total subjects, r=0.29 (P=0.009) for participants without and r=0.18 (P=0.538) for participants with a history of CVD. This suggests that vascular damage due to a high daily intake of salt may stimulate EPC production in healthy elderly Japanese men especially in those without a history of CVD.