This is the conclusion of the latest study from the University of California in Los Angeles (USA) and whose results are published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).
The researchers analyzed for their experiment various liver biomarkers (including an aging biomarker, known as the “epigenetic clock”) in almost 1,200 human tissue samples, including 140 liver samples , in order to study the relationship between acceleration of epigenetic age (all those non-genetic factors that intervene in determining the development of the organism) and body weight.
The results revealed that obesity did not affect the epigenetic age of muscle, fat or blood tissue, but it did affect the liver. For every 10 units of body mass index (BMI), the age of the liver increased 3.3 years , discovering for the first time that being obese significantly accelerates the aging of our liver. In lean individuals, the “epigenetic clock” showed the same biological age in the tissues as the chronological age.
As an example, a woman who measures 1.67 centimeters and weighs 90 kilos, would have a BMI of 33.3 and therefore, would be around 3 years older than another woman with the same height but 67 kilos and a BMI of 23, 3.
“This is the first study to evaluate the effect of body weight on biological ages in a variety of human tissues. Given the obesity epidemic in the Western world, the results of this study are of great relevance to public health, since they support the hypothesis that obesity is associated with accelerated effects of aging and underline, once again, the importance of maintain a healthy weight, ”explains study co-author Steve Horvath.
