Type 2 Diabetes Accelerates Brain Aging

The metabolic dysfunction of type 2 diabetes is known to accelerate the pathologies of aging. A range of mechanisms are involved, the most prominent of which is elevated chronic inflammation. Type 2 diabetes is a lifestyle condition caused, in the vast majority of cases, by being very overweight. Excess visceral fat tissue, required to produce the metabolic syndrome that leads into type 2 diabetes, accelerates the production of pro-inflammatory and generally disruptive senescent cells, but also produces inflammation via other mechanisms, such as the release of DNA debris from dying fat cells. Diabetes also features increased levels of circulating advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), and this sugary metabolic waste provokes inflammatory behavior via the receptor for AGEs (RAGE). Neurodegenerative conditions are also driven and characterized by chronic inflammation. It might be expected that years of raised chronic inflammation due to excess fat tissue and an aberrant diabetic metabolism will act to accelerate neurodegeneration, just as it does for all of the other common age-related conditions. The mechanisms involved may be direct, such as a disruption of the supporting immune cells in the brain via inflammatory signaling, as activated and senescent microglia are implicated in the progression of conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. It may be more indirect, involving accelerated cardiovascular aging (hypertension, atherosclerosis, blood-brain barrier dysfunction, ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs