Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Year in Review
  • Published:

Healthy ageing in 2016

Obesity in geroscience — is cellular senescence the culprit?

Nature Reviews Endocrinology volume 13, pages 76–78 (2017)Cite this article

Subjects

Obesity and ageing are major worldwide health challenges associated with lifestyle changes and an increase in age-related diseases, characterized by chronic inflammation dubbed metaflammation and inflammaging. However, the mechanistic link between these inflammatory processes is still unknown. New findings in 2016 shed light on these issues and indicate common targets for intervention.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: A nutrient-rich, high-fat diet induces accumulation in visceral adipose tissue of senescent immune cells (macrophages and T cells).

References

  1. Kennedy, B. K. et al. Geroscience: linking aging to chronic disease. Cell 159, 709–713 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Franceschi, C. & Campisi, J. Chronic inflammation (inflammaging) and its potential contribution to age-associated diseases. J. Gerontol. A Biol. Sci. Med. Sci. 69 (Suppl. 1), 4–9 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Franceschi, C. et al. Inflammaging and 'garb-aging'. Trends Endocrinol. Metab. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tem.2016.09.005 (2016).

  4. Gregor, M. F. & Hotamisligil, G. S. Inflammatory mechanisms in obesity. Annu. Rev. Immunol. 29, 415–445 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Schafer, M. J. et al. Exercise prevents diet-induced cellular senescence in adipose tissue. Diabetes 65, 1606–1615 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Shirakawa, K. et al. Obesity accelerates T cell senescence in murine visceral adipose tissue. J. Clin. Invest. 126, 4626–4639 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Hall, B. M. et al. Aging of mice is associated with p16Ink4a- and β-galactosidase-positive macrophage accumulation that can be induced in young mice by senescent cells. Aging (Albany NY) 8, 1294–1315 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yang, L. et al. Long-term calorie restriction enhances cellular quality-control processes in human skeletal muscle. Cell Rep. 14, 422–428 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Collins, K. H. et al. A high-fat high-sucrose diet rapidly alters muscle integrity, inflammation and gut microbiota in male rats. Sci. Rep. 6, 37278 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Biagi, E. et al. Gut microbiota and extreme longevity. Curr. Biol. 26, 1480–1485 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Union (EU)'s H2020 Project 'Propag-ageing' (grant agreement no. 634821), EU FP7 “HUMAN”, G.A. n. 602757; and EU JPND 'Adage' to C.F.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Istituto di Ricovero e Cura a Carattere Scientifico (IRCCS), Institute of Neurological Sciences of Bologna, Bellaria Hospital, Via Altura 3, 40139, Bologna, Italy

    Claudio Franceschi

Authors
  1. Claudio Franceschi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Claudio Franceschi.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

PowerPoint slides

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Franceschi, C. Obesity in geroscience — is cellular senescence the culprit?. Nat Rev Endocrinol 13, 76–78 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.213

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrendo.2016.213

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing