title: Age-dependent decreases of calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, and zinc in the cardiac valves of monkeys.
abstract: To elucidate compositional changes of the cardiac valves in monkey with aging, the authors investigated age-related changes of elements in the four cardiac valves of rhesus and Japanese monkeys and the relationships among elements by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The four cardiac valves of the aortic, pulmonary, mitral, and tricuspid valves were resected from 19 rhesus and 11 Japanese monkeys, ranging in age from 10 d to 33 yr. The element contents were determined by ICP-AES. It was found that the Ca, P, S, and Zn contents were high in the four cardiac valves of the monkeys below 1 yr and thereafter decreased significantly with aging, except for Ca in the mitral valve, for which no significant correlation was found between age and Ca content. The Ca and P contents did not increase in the four cardiac valves at old age. This result revealed that calcification scarcely occurred in the four cardiac valves at old age. With regard to the relationships among elements, it was found that there were significant direct correlations among the Ca, P, S, and Zn contents in all of the four cardiac valves of the monkeys, with two exceptions between P and Zn contents in both the aortic and pulmonary valves. Therefore, as Ca decreased in the four cardiac valves, P, S, and Zn decreased simultaneously in the same cardiac valves.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Department of Radiologic and Histocytopathologic Sciences, Bologna University, Bologna 40139, Italy.
authors.forename: Federico
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Menetti
authors.forename: Setsuko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Tohno
authors.forename: Yoshiyuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tohno
authors.forename: Cho
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Azuma
authors.forename: Yumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moriwake
authors.forename: Hiroyasu
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Satoh
authors.forename: Takeshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Minami
authors.forename: Pasuk
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mahakkanukrauh
authors.forename: Takao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oishi
authors.forename: Motoharu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hayashi
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D002118:Calcium / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D006351:Heart Valves / Q000737:chemistry*; D008251:Macaca / Q000502:physiology; D008253:Macaca mulatta / Q000502:physiology; D010758:Phosphorus / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D013054:Spectrophotometry, Atomic; D013455:Sulfur / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D015032:Zinc / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*
chemical_list: D010758:Phosphorus; D013455:Sulfur; D015032:Zinc; D002118:Calcium