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Age-associated changes in circulatory fatty acids: new insights on adults and long-lived individuals

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Abstract

Long-lived individuals (LLIs) are considered an ideal model to study healthy human aging. Blood fatty acid (FA) profile of a cohort of LLIs (90–111 years old, n = 49) from Sicily was compared to adults (18–64 years old, n = 69) and older adults (65–89 years old, n = 54) from the same area. Genetic variants in key enzymes related to FA biosynthesis and metabolism were also genotyped to investigate a potential genetic predisposition in determining the FA profile. Gas chromatography was employed to determine the FA profile, and genotyping was performed using high-resolution melt (HRM) analysis. Blood levels of total polyunsaturated FA (PUFA) and total trans-FA decreased with age, while the levels of saturated FA (SFA) remained unchanged. Interestingly, distinctively higher circulatory levels of monounsaturated FA (MUFA) in LLIs compared to adults and older adults were observed. In addition, among LLIs, rs174537 in the FA desaturase 1/2 (FADS1/2) gene was associated with linoleic acid (LA, 18:2n-6) and docosatetraenoic acid (DTA, 22:4n-6) levels, and the rs953413 in the elongase of very long FA 2 (ELOVL2) was associated with DTA levels. We further observed that rs174579 and rs174626 genotypes in FADS1/2 significantly affect delta-6 desaturase (D6D) activity. In conclusion, our results suggest that the LLIs have a different FA profile characterized by high MUFA content, which indicates reduced peroxidation while maintaining membrane fluidity.

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Funding

This work was funded by the 20157ATSLF project (Discovery of molecular, and genetic/epigenetic signatures underlying resistance to age-related diseases and comorbidities), granted by the Italian Ministry of Education, University, and Research to C.C. and G.C. The Institutional Ethics Committee (“Paolo Giaccone”, University Hospital) approved the study protocol (Nutrition and Longevity, No. 032017). We thank all the donors (or their caregivers) for their kind participation in this study.

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  1. Sawan Ali and Anna Aiello contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine and Health Sciences “V. Tiberio”, University of Molise, Via De Sanctis 1, Campobasso, Italy

    Sawan Ali, Mariano Intrieri, Graziamaria Corbi, Giovanni Scapagnini & Sergio Davinelli

  2. Laboratory of Immunopathology and Immunosenescence, Department of Biomedicine, Neurosciences and Advanced Diagnostics, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy

    Anna Aiello, Giulia Accardi, Anna Calabrò, Mattia Emanuela Ligotti, Calogero Caruso & Giuseppina Candore

  3. Dipartimento Di Scienze E Tecnologie, Università Degli Studi del Sannio, Benevento, Italy

    Tiziana Zotti & Pasquale Vito

  4. Consorzio Sannio Tech, 82030, Apollosa, Italy

    Gaetano Cardinale

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  1. Sawan Ali
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  2. Anna Aiello
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Ali, S., Aiello, A., Zotti, T. et al. Age-associated changes in circulatory fatty acids: new insights on adults and long-lived individuals. GeroScience 45, 781–796 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-022-00696-z

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