Several areas of overlap between obesity and aging indicate obesity as a biomarker of accelerated aging of human B cell function and antibody responses

Abstract

Aging and obesity are high risk factors for several conditions and diseases. They are both associated with systemic inflammation and they are both ameliorated by a healthy life style, suggesting that they may share cellular and molecular pathways and underlying mechanisms. A close relationship between aging and obesity is also supported by the observation that the aging overweight/obese population is increasing worldwide, and mechanisms involved will be presented here. A focus of our work is to evaluate if obesity may be considered a good biomarker of accelerated aging of human antibody responses. We will summarize our published results showing the effects of obesity in accelerating age defects in the peripheral B cell pool and how these lead to dysfunctional humoral immunity.