In middle-aged adults, greater visceral adipose tissue measured using DEXA was independently associated with higher phenotypic age acceleration in both men and women and with shorter leukocyte telomere length — another biomarker of biological aging — in women but not in men.

METHODOLOGY

• Visceral adipose tissue is more metabolically active than subcutaneous fat, leading to greater risks for inflammation and cardiometabolic conditions. However, few studies have directly examined the association between DEXA-measured visceral adipose tissue and biological aging in middle-aged adults.
• Researchers conducted a cross-sectional analysis using data from 4799 adults (mean age, 58 years; 2614 women) from a population-based cohort study conducted in Western Australia.
• Whole-body DEXA was used to measure visceral adipose tissue mass, subcutaneous adipose tissue mass, and total body fat mass.
• Phenotypic age acceleration was derived from chronological age and nine clinical biomarkers (lymphocyte percentage; mean cell volume; red blood cell distribution width; alkaline phosphatase, albumin, creatinine, glucose, and C-reactive protein levels; and white blood cell count).
• Leukocyte telomere length was measured as the ratio of telomeric DNA to a single-copy control gene (T/S) in a subset of 1221 participants (51.8% women); shorter lengths indicated greater biological age.

TAKEAWAY

• Each 100-g increase in visceral adipose tissue mass was associated with a 0.160-year (95% CI, 0.137-0.183) increase in phenotypic age acceleration in men and a 0.321-year (95% CI, 0.291-0.351) increase in women.
• Each 1-SD increase in visceral adipose tissue was independently associated with a 1.397-year (95% CI, 1.197-1.596) increase in phenotypic age acceleration in men and a 1.919-year (95% CI, 1.738-2.099) increase in women.
• In women, higher visceral adipose tissue mass was associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length, with each 100-g increase linked to a 0.007-unit decrease in the T/S ratio and each 1-SD increase linked to a 0.041-unit decrease in the ratio; no significant associations were found in men.

IN PRACTICE

“[The study] findings suggest that VAT [visceral adipose tissue] could be a specific marker of accelerated biological aging, independent of lifestyle factors and traditional anthropometric and other DXA-derived measures of obesity,” the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE

The study was led by Riorden O’Shea, WA Country Health Service, Perth, Australia. It was published online in Obesity.

LIMITATIONS

The cross-sectional design prevented the establishment of causal relationships. The study population was highly homogeneous, which may have limited generalizability. Additionally, analysis of leukocyte telomere length was conducted only on a subset of participants.

DISCLOSURES

The cohort study received funding from the Federal Government of Australia, the Government of Western Australia, the National Health and Medical Research Council Equipment Grant scheme, and other sources. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.