Impact of age and sex on myelopoiesis and inflammation during myocardial infarction

• Published in: Journal of molecular and cellular cardiology 2024-02, Vol.187, p.80-89
• Main Authors: Kanuri, Babunageswararao, Biswas, Priosmita, Dahdah, Albert, Murphy, Andrew J., Nagareddy, Prabhakara R.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age; Immunity; Myelopoiesis; Myocardial infarction; Sex
• ISSN: 0022-2828; 1095-8584; 1095-8584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.yjmcc.2023.11.011

Of all the different risk factors known to cause cardiovascular disease (CVD), age and sex are considered to play a crucial role. Aging follows a continuum from birth to death, and therefore it inevitably acts as a risk for CVD. Along with age, sex differences have also been shown to demonstrate variations in immune system responses to pathological insults. It has been widely perceived that females are protected against myocardial infarction (MI) and the protection is quite apparent in young vs. old women. Acute MI leads to changes in the population of myeloid and lymphoid cells at the injury site with myeloid bias being observed in the initial inflammation and the lymphoid in the late-resolution phases of the pathology. Multiple evidence demonstrates that aging enhances damage to various cellular processes through inflamm-aging, an inflammatory process identified to increase pro-inflammatory markers in circulation and tissues. Following MI, marked changes were observed in different sub-sets of major myeloid cell types viz., neutrophils, monocytes, and macrophages. There is a paucity of information regarding the tissue and site-specific functions of these sub-sets. In this review, we highlight the importance of age and sex as crucial risk factors by discussing their role during MI-induced myelopoiesis while emphasizing the current status of myeloid cell sub-sets. We further put forth the need for designing and executing age and sex interaction studies aimed to determine the appropriate age and sex to develop personalized therapeutic strategies post-MI. •Age and sex represent the most important risk factors for heart disease.•Along with aging associated ‘inflamm-aging’, sex differences also show variations in response to pathological insults.•Acute inflammation driven by myelopoiesis is enhanced after acute MI, with a bias towards inflammatory monocytes formation.•There lies paucity in literature on tissue and site-specific functions driven by myelopoiesis after acute MI.•Clonal hematopoiesis, mosaic loss of Y chromosome and menopause are some of the key determinants in MI disease pathology.•The current state of understanding on age and sex interactions in MI induced myelopoiesis is inconclusive.•Experiments focused on such interactions are key for developing personalized therapeutic strategies post-MI in future.