Problematic B Cells Accumulate in Visceral Fat and Indirectly Provoke Inflammation

The authors of today's open access paper present an interesting and novel way in which visceral fat tissue provokes chronic inflammation. It has been noted that dysfunctional B cells accumulate with age. Here, dysfunctional B cells of a specific subtype are shown to accumulate in aged visceral fat tissue, acting to provoke other immune cells in visceral fat tissue, such as macrophages, into a more pro-inflammatory state. The researchers demonstrate that removing the B cell population helps to reduce the age-related inflammation generated by visceral fat by removing the contribution to inflammatory macrophage behavior. Of note, B cells regenerate quite rapidly following clearance, and it seems that using pharmacological means or gene therapies to clear out B cells in aged individuals would improve a number of issues. Targeted clearance of specific immune cells (such as microglia in the brain), or indeed the immune system as a whole, is an underdeveloped area of medical research, and one that could in principle produce therapies capable of reversing a number of aspects of immune aging. Age-associated accumulation of B cells promotes macrophage inflammation and inhibits lipolysis in adipose tissue during sepsis Aging is accompanied by an increase in visceral adiposity, immune cell activation, and decreased ability of visceral white adipose tissue (vWAT) to maintain homeostatic functions such as lipolysis that is required for the generation of free fatty ac...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs