New study by Austrian researchers suggests premature aging caused by obesity could be reversed with bariatric surgery.
Obesity isn’t just a cosmetic problem, it is considered a serious health condition. Obesity increases the risk of numerous health conditions such as, heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, gallstones etc.
Obesity also speeds up the aging process, a fact which has been tied to certain molecular processes.
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Lead author Dr Philipp Hohensinner, a researcher at the Medical University of Vienna, says:
“Obese people are prematurely old.”
“They have an increased level of inflammation, with higher levels of inflammatory cytokines (small proteins important in cell signaling) in their fat tissue. Obese people also have shorter telomeres at the end of their chromosomes.”
Earlier research has shown that obese women had shorter telomeres – a marker of ageing, compared to women with a healthy weight, which amounted to an added 8 years of life.
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Telomeres are the pieces of DNA positioned at the ends of each chromosome and act as protective caps for DNA. Our genes are protected by chromosomes, which get shorter every time a cell divides. When the telomeres get very short, the cell goes through a process of senescence (cells stop dividing permanently) and therefore, it is either replenished or stays in the body as an aged cell.
Various lifestyle choices such as, smoking, lack of exercise, bad diet, andobesity can increase the rate of degradation of the telomeres, therefore promote premature aging.
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While obese people are known to have shorter telomeres, they also display other hallmarks of premature cellular aging such as, higher levels of inflammation and increased quantities of inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines are cellular messengers that often responsible for making the disease worse.
Bariatric surgery significantly reduces the size of the stomach. The procedure bypasses the gastrointestinal tract and leaves only a sac of stomach.
With a dramatic weight loss, the surgery can cut down body weight by 30-40% in just one year.
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The current study on premature aging focused on whether weight loss resulting from bariatric surgery could reverse the premature aging in obese patients.
The team led by Dr. Philipp Hohensinner from the University of Vienna, Austria, recruited76 patients who were an average age of 40 and an average body mass index (BMI) of 44.5 kilograms per square meter.
All participants had been referred for bariatric surgery after unsuccessfully battling their obesity through lifestyle changes alone.
One year after the surgery, BMI dropped an average of 38%. In addition, there were decreases in the pro-inflammatory cytokines plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 and interleukin-6, and an increase in the anti-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-10.
Two years after the surgery, the patients' telomeres increased by an impressive 80% in both cells and blood samples.
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Dr. Hohensinner explains:
“These cells are replenished over time. It means that the cells we examined at 2 years were different cells in this new post-surgery environment. They had longer telomeres and appeared younger than the cells we measured before surgery. The cells seem to have less stress and are less forced to proliferate.”
The team also assessed telomere oxidation, which causes the telomeres to break shorten. They found that 2 years after surgery, oxidative damage on the telomeres had reduced by three-fold.
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Dr. Hohensinner says the procedure prevents premature aging. The cells appear to be getting younger because of less breakage due to oxidation. Obesity puts stress on the entire body. By undergoing bariatric surgery, obese people can repair themselves and become younger.
The findings might also be applied to those individuals who have lost weight by dieting over a longer period of time.
The researchers submitted their findings at the Frontiers in CardioVascular Biology (FCVB) 2016 conference in Florence, Italy.
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