Evidence for Some of the Burden of Fat Tissue to Result from Increased Levels of Cellular Senescence

In this study and in agreement with other studies, we show that obesity induced by a high fat (HF) diet results in a significant increase in senescent cells in WAT compared to low fat (LF) controls. Circulating activin A levels were also increased in the HF group compared to the LF controls. Importantly, our data indicate that 28 days of weight loss are sufficient to significantly reduce the number of senescent cells as shown by significantly reduced activin A levels and a significant reduction in senescent beta-galactosidase stained cells in inguinal and retroperitoneal WAT depots. Of note, since inguinal and retroperitoneal WAT were the most responsive to the weight loss, there appears to be a depot specific difference in cellular senescence in response to this dietary manipulation.

Recently a comprehensive study identified activin A as a marker for cellular senescence in humans and mice. In this study, it was determined that i) human senescent fat cell progenitors release activin A, ii) activin A impedes the normal function of stem cells and fat tissue, iii) older mice have higher levels of activin A in both their blood and fat tissue than young mice, and iv) eliminating senescent cells from mice leads to lower levels of activin A. Since most procedures used to determine senescent cell accumulation require tissue collection, the discovery of a circulating marker of cellular senescence represents an important step for detection of senescent-related disease. This is p...

Source: Fight Aging! - January 4, 2017 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs