BiogerontologyDec 27, 2025

How Aging Fat Tissue May Lead to Body-Wide Metabolic Aging

Longevity & Aging Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jun 28, 2026

Abstract

Essence

This review argues that aging adipose tissue may actively drive broader metabolic aging and disease through its secreted signals and senescent cell state.

Evidence

This is a conceptual review that synthesizes adipose aging, senescent adipocytes, and links to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, ectopic lipid deposition, and cognitive decline.

Caveat

Because it is a review and framework paper, it proposes mechanisms and intervention directions but does not provide new experimental or clinical results.

Simplified

Aging adipose tissue is a consequence of organismal aging and an "amplifier" that drives systemic metabolic disorders. This review proposes the conceptual framework of the "aging metabolic amplifier", systematically explaining how aging adipose tissue reshapes the microenvironment of distant organs through its secretory profile, thereby linking obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and neurodegenerative diseases. The concept of the "aging metabolic amplifier" emphasizes the important role of senescent adipocytes in systemic metabolic dysfunction, and systematically elaborates on their heterogeneous characteristics, autonomous and non-autonomous changes, as well as their mechanisms in ectopic lipid deposition, cardiovascular diseases, and cognitive decline. Currently, specific intervention strategies-such as activating the thermogenic program, eliminating senescent cells, regulating autophagy, and improving the microenvironment- have been proposed, providing potential therapeutic directions for delaying aging and related metabolic diseases.