Lipid Droplet Accumulation in Aging and Age-Related Disease

Researchers here consider dysregulation of lipid metabolism at the cellular level as an aspect of aging that causes downstream issues. Like many manifestations of aging observed in cells in aged tissues, why this happens is a matter for debate, setting aside situations such as the environment of a fatty liver or atherosclerotic plaque in which there is a localized excess of lipids to explain the overload inside cells. In a number of neurodegenerative conditions, the presence of cells loaded with lipid droplets is a prominent feature. It remains to be seen as to whether new classes of therapy under development, capable of clearing lipids in a selective manner, will prove to be useful in that context. It is widely accepted that nine hallmarks - including mitochondrial dysfunction, epigenetic alterations, and loss of proteostasis - exist that describe the cellular aging process. Adding to this, a well-described cell organelle in the metabolic context, namely, lipid droplets, also accumulates with increasing age, which can be regarded as a further aging-associated process. Independently of their essential role as fat stores, lipid droplets are also able to control cell integrity by mitigating lipotoxic and proteotoxic insults. As we will show in this review, numerous longevity interventions (such as mTOR inhibition) also lead to strong accumulation of lipid droplets in Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and mammalian cells, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs