Age-related modulation of plasmatic beta-Galactosidase activity in healthy subjects and in patients affected by T2DM

// Liana Spazzafumo 1,* , Emanuela Mensa 2,* , Giulia Matacchione 2,* , Tiziana Galeazzi 3 , Lucia Zampini 3 , Rina Recchioni 4 , Fiorella Marcheselli 4 , Francesco Prattichizzo 5 , Roberto Testa 6 , Roberto Antonicelli 7 , Paolo Garagnani 8,9 , Massimo Boemi 10 , Massimiliano Bonafe 8 , Anna Rita Bonfigli 11 , Antonio Domenico Procopio 2,4 and Fabiola Olivieri 2,4 1 Center of Biostatics, INRCA-IRCCS National Institute, Ancona, Italy 2 Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, DISCLIMO, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy 3 Pediatric Division, Department of Clinical Sciences, Universita Politecnica delle Marche, Ospedali Riuniti, Presidio Salesi, Ancona, Italy 4 Center of Clinical Pathology and Innovative Therapy, INRCA-IRCCS National Institute, Ancona, Italy 5 Department of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases, IRCCS Multimedica, Sesto San Giovanni, Italy 6 Clinical Laboratory and Molecular Diagnostics, INRCA-IRCCS National Institute, Ancona, Italy 7 UTIC-Cardiology INRCA-IRCCS, National Institute, Ancona, Italy 8 Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy 9 Clinical Chemistry, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet at Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden 10 Diabetology Unit, INRCA-IRCCS, National Institute, Ancona, Italy 11 Scientific Direction, INRCA-IRCCS, National Institute, Ancona, Italy * The authors contributed equally to this work Correspondence to: Anna Rita Bonfigli, email: // Keywords : cellular senescence; beta galactosidase activity; type 2 diabetes; aging; inflammaging; Gerotarget Received : August 02, 2017 Accepted : October 04, 2017 Published : October 16, 2017 Abstract β-Galactosidase (β-Gal) activity has been the most extensively utilized biomarker for the detection of cellular senescence. It can be measured also in plasma, and few recent evidence showed an altered plasmatic β-Gal activity in patients affected by some age-related diseases (ARDs). Since T2DM is one of the most common ARDs, we aimed to investigate if plasmatic β-Gal activity is modulated in T2DM patients and if “age” could affect such modulation. To gain mechanistic insights we paralleled this investigation with the evaluation of β-Gal activity in young and senescent endothelial cells (HUVECs) cultured in normo- and hyper-glycaemic environment. A significant age-related increase of plasmatic β-Gal activity was observed in healthy subjects (n. 230; 55-87 years), whereas the enzymatic activity was significantly reduced in T2DM patients (n. 230; 55-96 years) compared to healthy subjects. β-Gal activity detectable both in cells and in the culture medium was significantly increased in senescent cells compared to the younger ones, both under normo- and hyper-glycaemic condition. However, the hyper-glycaemic condition was not associated with an increased β-Gal activity in milieu compared to normo-glycaemic condition. Overall our data reinforce the notion that plasmatic β-Gal activity could be a systemic biomarker of aging, whereas T2DM patients are characterized by a different age-releated trend.