Type 2 diabetes - adipose tissue and its role in aging

Type 2 diabetes - adipose tissue and its role in aging

Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer can cause overweight and obese people to die much earlier than slim people. Scientists at the Medical University of Graz in Austria may have found the reason. When our cells divide, tiny structures called telomeres are involved in moving chromosomes to the “new” daughter cells. With each cell division, telomeres become shorter and the shortness has to do with aging. The University of Graz, Austria, in March 2019, in the magazineClinical chemistry and laboratory medicine,reported the connection between adipose tissue and its distribution of shortened telomeres.

The researchers measured telomere length in the white blood cells of three hundred and seventy-five participants: They compared telomere length to the amount and location of fat in fifteen locations. Telomere length was shortest in those who had high levels of fat in their...

• Neck,

• upper arms,

• upper back,

• Chest,

• abdominal area,

• hips,

• thighs and

• Calves.

It was found that neck and hip fat were strongly linked to shortened telomeres. Based on these results, researchers concluded that excess fat is linked to telomere shortening.

Medications used to treat diabetes have also been linked to telomere shortening. The magazine was published in January 2019agingreported a study conducted at Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Hubei, China, and Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangdong, China. Telomeres in the white blood cells of three hundred and eighty-eight people with type 2 diabetes were measured...

• Type 2 diabetics who did not take medication had significantly shorter telomeres than treated diabetics.

• Type 2 diabetics treated with acarbose had shorter telomeres than those treated with other drugs.

Based on these results, researchers concluded that acarbose may have an aging effect.

In February 2019 theJournal of Diabetes Complicationsreported a study that linked insulin treatment to telomere shortening. The investigators from Capital Medical University in Beijing, China, and the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences in Beijing, China, paid close attention to sixty-four people who had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes six years earlier. None had received insulin at the start of the study. Average telomere length decreased, although it lengthened in a small number of people. Of 18 participants who had received insulin over the six years...

• 16 showed reduced telomere length and

• 2 showed increased telomere length.

Insulin users were more than 17 times more likely to have telomere shortening than non-users. Using insulin with high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol was also associated with telomere shortening.

Although medication is necessary for many people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, controlling blood sugar levels without medication could be a way to increase their life expectancy, based on telomere studies.

Inspired by Beverleigh H Piepers