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Review
. 2019 Feb 19:14:389-398.
doi: 10.2147/CIA.S168687. eCollection 2019.

Current and emerging biomarkers of frailty in the elderly

Ahmed Al Saedi  1   2 , Jack Feehan  1   2 , Steven Phu  1   2 , Gustavo Duque  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Current and emerging biomarkers of frailty in the elderly

Ahmed Al Saedi et al. Clin Interv Aging. .

Abstract

The term "frailty" is used to describe a subset of older adults who appear weaker and more vulnerable than their age-matched counterparts, despite having similar comorbidities, demography, sex, and age. The diagnosis of frailty is usually clinical and based on specific criteria, which are sometimes inconsistent. Therefore, there is an increasing need to identify and validate robust biomarkers for this condition. In this review, we summarize current evidence on the validity and practicality of the most commonly used biomarkers for frailty, while also comparing them with new upcoming strategies to identify this condition.

Keywords: COP cells; biomarkers; disability; elderly; frailty; mesenchymal stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Current and upcoming biomarkers for frailty. Abbreviations: COP, circulating osteoprogenitor; DHEA, dehydroepiandrosterone; PTH, parathyroid hormone; IGF1, insulin-like growth factor 1; HbA1c, glycated hemoglobin; CRP, C-reactive protein; IL6, interleukin 6; TNFα, tumor necrosis factor alpha.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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