Elastin and Aging Arteries
Damage to the elastin in the walls of our arteries is one of the ways in which we age: "Aging affects elastin, a key component of the arterial wall integrity and functionality. Elastin degradation in cerebral vessels is associated with cerebrovascular disease. ... The structural morphology of elastin changed [with age] from a fiber network oriented primarily in the circumferential direction to a more heterogeneously oriented fiber mesh ... Biomechanically, cerebral arteries stiffen with age ... Enzymatic degradation of elastin led [to] stiffening in the young group but did not affect the structural and material properties in the older group, suggesting that elastin, though present in equal quantities in the old group, becomes dysfunctional with aging. ... Elastin loses its functionality in cerebral arteries with aging, leading to stiffer less compliant arteries. The area fraction of elastin remained, however, fairly constant. The loss of functionality may thus be attributed to fragmentation and structural reorganization of elastin occurring with age." This has the look of the sort of damage done by accumulating senescent cells, which emit biochemicals that lead to errant remodeling of the surrounding extracellular matrix.