Topological transition at midlife in the physiological network of Mexican women and divergent amplitude of topological change between sexes: allostatic load biomarkers across adult life
4 affiliations
- 1Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico, Mexico
- 2Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Escuela Superior de Medicina, Sección de Estudios de Posgrado e Investigación, Mexico, Mexico
- 3Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México, Mexico
- 4Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, México, Mexico
Abstract
Introduction: Additive allostatic load indices treat cardiometabolic biomarkers as independent Q6 units and discard their covariation. Correlation networks recover it, yet previous physiological network studies were restricted to strictly healthy participants or specific diseases, leaving undescribed how topology changes across adult life in the general population.
Methods: We analyzed 7,999 adults (5,058 women, 2,941 men) pooled from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Surveys (ENSANUT) of 2016, 2020 and 2021, stratified by sex and five age groups (20–91 years) and, in an exploratory analysis, by dyslipidemia. For each stratum we built graphs of 22 anthropometric, hemodynamic and biochemical variables from Spearman correlations retained at p < 0.05 and averaged density, transitivity, mean distance and Louvain modularity over 100 subsamples of 79% of the participants.
Results: Female topology followed two phases. Between the 20–29 and 40–49 age groups, density fell from 0.47 to 0.25 and transitivity from 0.70 to 0.50, whereas mean distance rose from 1.61 to 2.32 and modularity from 0.40 to 0.56 as blood pressure variables separated into a distinct module; all four then plateaued through the oldest group. Univariate biomarker trajectories changed gradually over the same ages. Men showed no such transition, with density between 0.34 and 0.42 across all strata, a range narrower than each female step during the first phase, and modularity rising only from 0.37 to 0.45 between the two youngest groups. The female decline was already present between the 20–29 and 30–39 groups, at ages preceding the menopausal transition. Edges persisted in graphs rebuilt from the 12 directly measured variables, and stratification by dyslipidemia, defined by three nodes of the network, did not fully account for the age trends.
Discussion: These cross-sectional graphs describe covariation across individuals, and their reading as within-person regulation requires longitudinal confirmation. A male transition before age 20 and survivorship selection remain competing, testable explanations for male topological stability. The results extend to adult life the sexual dimorphism described in physiological networks of healthy young adults and locate in women a reorganization, completed by midlife, that univariate analyses did not reveal.
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BibTeX
@article{uriarteortiz2026topological,
title = {{Topological transition at midlife in the physiological network of Mexican women and divergent amplitude of topological change between sexes: allostatic load biomarkers across adult life}},
author = {Julian B. Uriarte-Ortiz and Antonio Barajas-Martínez and Ruth M. López-Mayorga and Raúl Sampieri-Cabrera},
journal = {Frontiers in Physiology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fphys.2026.1982421},
url = {https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2026.1982421},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Topological transition at midlife in the physiological network of Mexican women and divergent amplitude of topological change between sexes: allostatic load biomarkers across adult life
AU - Julian B. Uriarte-Ortiz
AU - Antonio Barajas-Martínez
AU - Ruth M. López-Mayorga
AU - Raúl Sampieri-Cabrera
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/21
JO - Frontiers in Physiology
DO - 10.3389/fphys.2026.1982421
UR - https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2026.1982421
AB - Introduction: Additive allostatic load indices treat cardiometabolic biomarkers as independent Q6 units and discard their covariation. Correlation networks recover it, yet previous physiological network studies were restricted to strictly healthy participants or specific diseases, leaving undescribed how topology changes across adult life in the general population. Methods: We analyzed 7,999 adults (5,058 women, 2,941 men) pooled from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Surveys (ENSANUT) of 2016, 2020 and 2021, stratified by sex and five age groups (20–91 years) and, in an exploratory analysis, by dyslipidemia. For each stratum we built graphs of 22 anthropometric, hemodynamic and biochemical variables from Spearman correlations retained at p < 0.05 and averaged density, transitivity, mean distance and Louvain modularity over 100 subsamples of 79% of the participants. Results: Female topology followed two phases. Between the 20–29 and 40–49 age groups, density fell from 0.47 to 0.25 and transitivity from 0.70 to 0.50, whereas mean distance rose from 1.61 to 2.32 and modularity from 0.40 to 0.56 as blood pressure variables separated into a distinct module; all four then plateaued through the oldest group. Univariate biomarker trajectories changed gradually over the same ages. Men showed no such transition, with density between 0.34 and 0.42 across all strata, a range narrower than each female step during the first phase, and modularity rising only from 0.37 to 0.45 between the two youngest groups. The female decline was already present between the 20–29 and 30–39 groups, at ages preceding the menopausal transition. Edges persisted in graphs rebuilt from the 12 directly measured variables, and stratification by dyslipidemia, defined by three nodes of the network, did not fully account for the age trends. Discussion: These cross-sectional graphs describe covariation across individuals, and their reading as within-person regulation requires longitudinal confirmation. A male transition before age 20 and survivorship selection remain competing, testable explanations for male topological stability. The results extend to adult life the sexual dimorphism described in physiological networks of healthy young adults and locate in women a reorganization, completed by midlife, that univariate analyses did not reveal.
SN - 1664-042X
ER -