Age Changes in Lipid Metabolism and their Medical Implications

Abstract

The process of aging is an important contributing factor in the development of atherosclerosis, notwithstanding the frequent presence of sudanophilic deposits in the aortic intima of children nor their frequent absence in persons in the 7th and 8th decades. That is because there exists a pattern of continuous changes in lipid metabolism, directed from early embryonic life throughout development, growth and maturity into old age, which is present in different species (rabbit, rat, chicken and pig) and in humans. In the liver, muscle, blood corpuscles and plasma, this pattern is characterized by a gradual increase in the content of different lipid constituents during embryonic and postnatal development, to maximal values in the very young animal, which are followed by a gradual decrease to very low values in the adult. However, in the case of the brain, lung and kidney, the lipid content continues to rise postnatally to reach maximal values in the mature adult. Sudanophilic deposits in the aortic intima of children most likely represent only one aspect of this more general pattern of changes in lipid metabolism, which is related to the process of aging and which affects in a similar way a number of, but not all, tissues.