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Social connections and risk of incident mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and mortality in 13 longitudinal cohort studies of ageing
- Gowsaly Mahalingam, Suraj Samtani, Ben Chun Pan Lam, Darren M Lipnicki, Maria Fernanda Lima-Costa, Sergio Luis Blay, Erico Castro-Costa, Xiao Shifu, Maëlenn Guerchet, Pierre-Marie Preux, Antoine Gbessemehlan, Ingmar Skoog, Jenna Najar, Therese Rydberg Sterner, Nikolaos Scarmeas, Mary Yannakoulia, Themis Dardiotis, Ki-Woong Kim, Steffi Riedel-Heller, Susanne Röhr, Alexander Pabst, Suzana Shahar, Katya Numbers, Mary Ganguli, Tiffany F. Hughes, Ching-Chou H. Chang, Michael Crowe, Tze Pin Ng, Xinyi Gwee, Denise Qian Ling Chua, representatives from SHARED work packages, Joanna Rymaszewska, Karin Wolf-Ostermann, Anna-Karin Welmer, Jean Stafford, Myrra Vernooij-Dassen, Yun-Hee Jeon, Perminder S Sachdev, Henry Brodaty
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- Journal:
- International Psychogeriatrics / Volume 35 / Issue S1 / December 2023
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 02 February 2024, pp. 16-17
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- Article
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Background:
Good social connections are proposed to positively influence the course of cognitive decline by stimulating cognitive reserve and buffering harmful stress-related health effects. Prior meta-analytic research has uncovered links between social connections and the risk of poor health outcomes such as mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and mortality. These studies have primarily used aggregate data from North America and Europe with limited markers of social connections. Further research is required to explore these associations longitudinally across a wider range of social connection markers in a global setting.
Research Objective:We examined the associations between social connection structure, function, and quality and the risk of our primary outcomes (mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and mortality).
Method:Individual participant-level data were obtained from 13 longitudinal studies of ageing from across the globe. We conducted survival analysis using Cox regression models and combined estimates from each study using two-stage meta-analysis. We examined three social constructs: connection structure (living situation, relationship status, interactions with friends/family, community group engagement), function (social support, having a confidante) and quality (relationship satisfaction, loneliness) in relation to the risks of three primary outcomes (mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and mortality). In our partially adjusted models, we included age, sex, and education and in fully adjusted models used these variables as well as diabetes, hypertension, smoking, cardiovascular risk, and depression.
Preliminary results of the ongoing study:In our fully adjusted models we observed: a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment was associated with being married/in a relationship (vs. being single), weekly community group engagement (vs. no engagement), weekly family/friend interactions (vs. not interacting), and never feeling lonely (vs. often feeling lonely); a lower risk of dementia was associated with monthly/weekly family/friend interactions and having a confidante (vs. no confidante); a lower risk of mortality was associated with living with others (vs. living alone), yearly/monthly/weekly community group engagement, and having a confidante.
Conclusion:Good social connection structure, function, and quality are associated with reduced risk of incident MCI, dementia, and mortality. Our results provide actionable evidence that social connections are required for healthy ageing.
Design and Fabrication of a Three-Dimensional In Vitro System for Modeling Vascular Stenosis
- Rebecca S. Jones, Pin H. Chang, Tzlil Perahia, Katrina A. Harmon, Lorain Junor, Michael J. Yost, Daping Fan, John F. Eberth, Richard L. Goodwin
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- Journal:
- Microscopy and Microanalysis / Volume 23 / Issue 4 / August 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 17 July 2017, pp. 859-871
- Print publication:
- August 2017
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Vascular stenosis, the abnormal narrowing of blood vessels, arises from defective developmental processes or atherosclerosis-related adult pathologies. Stenosis triggers a series of adaptive cellular responses that induces adverse remodeling, which can progress to partial or complete vessel occlusion with numerous fatal outcomes. Despite its severity, the cellular interactions and biophysical cues that regulate this pathological progression are poorly understood. Here, we report the design and fabrication of a three-dimensional (3D) in vitro system to model vascular stenosis so that specific cellular interactions and responses to hemodynamic stimuli can be investigated. Tubular cellularized constructs (cytotubes) were produced, using a collagen casting system, to generate a stenotic arterial model. Fabrication methods were developed to create cytotubes containing co-cultured vascular cells, where cell viability, distribution, morphology, and contraction were examined. Fibroblasts, bone marrow primary cells, smooth muscle cells (SMCs), and endothelial cells (ECs) remained viable during culture and developed location- and time-dependent morphologies. We found cytotube contraction to depend on cellular composition, where SMC-EC co-cultures adopted intermediate contractile phenotypes between SMC- and EC-only cytotubes. Our fabrication approach and the resulting artery model can serve as an in vitro 3D culture system to investigate vascular pathogenesis and promote the tissue engineering field.