Obesity May Accelerate the Aging Process

Conclusions Two, Not Mutually Exclusive, Hypotheses We have reviewed and organized the literature with the intent of showing the existing parallels between excessive fat accumulation and the aging process. We have categorized these reports following what have been proposed to be the nine hallmarks of aging (21) (Figure 1). Based on the evidence, two distinct hypotheses can be proposed. One is that the cellular responses provoked by an excess of nutrients cause obesity, and that obesity is responsible for accelerating the pace of aging. Supporting this hypothesis are the observations that knocking out the fat-specific insulin receptor, to produce extremely lean mice (180), and removal of visceral fat in rats (181) increased life span; additionally, CR on lean strains of rats, had only a minor effects on lifespan (182, 183). The alternative possibility is that the cellular responses provoked by an excess of nutrients are responsible for increasing the pace of aging. This common soil shared by both aging and obesity has been named “adipaging” (184), and there is some evidence of commonalities: hyperglycaemia, for example, induces senescence and the SASP in endothelial cells and macrophages (185) while glucose reduction prevents replicative senescence in human mesenchymal stem cells (186). The more abundant macronutrients (by weight and by calories) in the diet are usually carbohydrates and lipids, and specific reviews are available that focus on the possible to...
Source: Frontiers in Endocrinology - Category: Endocrinology Source Type: research