Associations of circulating GDF15 with combined cognitive frailty and depression in older adults of the MARK-AGE study

• Published in: GeroScience Vol. 46; no. 2; pp. 1657 - 1669
• Main Authors: Kochlik, Bastian, Herpich, Catrin, Moreno-Villanueva, María, Klaus, Susanne, Müller-Werdan, Ursula, Weinberger, Birgit, Fiegl, Simone, Toussaint, Olivier, Debacq-Chainiaux, Florence, Schön, Christiane, Bernhard, Jürgen, Breusing, Nicolle, Gonos, Efstathios S., Franceschi, Claudio, Capri, Miriam, Sikora, Ewa, Hervonen, Antti, Hurme, Mikko, Slagboom, P. Eline, Dollé, Martijn E. T., Jansen, Eugene, Grune, Tilman, Bürkle, Alexander, Norman, Kristina
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01-04-2024; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Age; Aged; Aging; Biomedical and Life Sciences; C-Reactive Protein; Cell Biology; Cognition; Cognitive ability; Comorbidity; Cross-Sectional Studies; Depression - epidemiology; Frail Elderly - psychology; Frailty; Geriatrics/Gerontology; Growth Differentiation Factor 15; Humans; Life Sciences; Mental depression; Molecular Medicine; Older people; Original; Original Article; Aging; Cognitive frailty; Depression; Biomarker; GDF15
• ISSN: 2509-2723; 2509-2715; 2509-2723
• DOI: 10.1007/s11357-023-00902-6

Growth differentiation factor-15 (GDF15) might be involved in the development of cognitive frailty and depression. Therefore, we evaluated cross-sectional associations of plasma GDF15 with combined cognitive-frailty-and-depression in older (i.e. ≥ 55 years) and younger adults of the MARK-AGE study. In the present work, samples and data of MARK-AGE (“European study to establish bioMARKers of human AGEing“) participants (
N
 = 2736) were analyzed. Cognitive frailty was determined by the global cognitive functioning score (GCF) and depression by the Self-Rating Depression Scale (SDS score). Adults were classified into three groups: (I) neither-cognitive-frailty-nor-depression, (II) either-cognitive-frailty-or-depression or (III) both-cognitive-frailty-and-depression. Cross-sectional associations were determined by unadjusted and by age, BMI, sex, comorbidities and hsCRP-adjusted linear and logistic regression analyses. Cognitive frailty, depression, age and GDF15 were significantly related within the whole study sample. High GDF15 levels were significantly associated with both-cognitive-frailty-and-depression (adjusted β = 0.177 [0.044 – 0.310],
p
 = 0.009), and with low GCF scores and high SDS scores. High GDF15 concentrations and quartiles were significantly associated with higher odds to have both-cognitive-frailty-and-depression (adjusted odds ratio = 2.353 [1.267 – 4.372],
p
 = 0.007; and adjusted odds ratio = 1.414 [1.025 – 1.951],
p
 = 0.035, respectively) independent of age, BMI, sex, comorbidities and hsCRP. These associations remained significant when evaluating older adults. We conclude that plasma GDF15 concentrations are significantly associated with combined cognitive-frailty-and-depression status and, with cognitive frailty and depressive symptoms separately in old as well as young community-dwelling adults.