Moore EE, Liu D, Li J, et al. - Greater aortic stiffening is linked to in vivo biomarker evidence of neuroinflammation, tau phosphorylation, synaptic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration among the oldest participants, ≥ 74 years of age, but not amyloidosis. In advanced age, central arterial stiffening may cause cumulative cerebral microcirculatory damage and reduced blood flow delivery to tissue, resulting in neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration.

• A total of 146 people (age 72 ± 6 years) were examined.

• On p-tau, t-tau, neurogranin, and soluble triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2, aortic pulse wave velocity (PWV) interacted with age.

• Higher aortic PWV was associated with higher p-tau, t-tau, neurogranin, and YKL-40 concentrations in participants >73 years of age.

• Modest interactions of aortic PWV with both the diagnosis on neurogranin and hypertension status on YKL-40 were evident.