Frailty Syndrome and Genomic Instability in Older Adults: Suitability of the Cytome Micronucleus Assay As a Diagnostic Tool

Frailty, a condition involving increased risk of disability and mortality in older adults, has emerged as a reliable way to predict the effect of aging. Genomic instability may help to anticipate recognition of frail individuals and improving frailty outcomes. Our objective was to evaluate the potential of the micronucleus frequency, evaluated in lymphocytes and buccal cells, to anticipate frailty identification and improve diagnosis reliability. Our results, from a group of older adults over 65, showed that frail individuals had significantly higher frequencies of micronucleus in lymphocytes (19.16 +/- 0.66 vs. 13.07 +/- 0.78, p < .001) and of binucleated buccal cells (82.65 +/- 3.42 vs. 37.16 +/- 2.85, p < .001) and lower frequencies of pyknotic and condensed chromatin buccal cells, than nonfrail subjects. When cognitive status was considered, similar results were obtained. Moreover, the presence of frailty and cognitive impairment were independently related to increases in frequencies of lymphocyte micronucleus and binucleated buccal cells. Our results encourage the use of micronucleus frequency in lymphocytes as a complement to clinical parameters in frailty identification. However, these results have to be further evaluated in prefrail patients, to better understand the connection between genomic instability and frailty and to establish these parameters as actual biomarkers of frailty in clinical practice.