Researchers developed the Liver Aging Index (LAI), a noninvasive biomarker combining clinical measurements, plasma markers, and imaging data to assess biological liver aging independent of chronological age. The LAI predicted all-cause mortality and liver-related events more accurately than age alone across three large independent cohorts, with accelerated liver aging conferring 22–85% higher mortality risk per standard deviation increase.
Key Points
- LAI outperforms chronological age in predicting mortality across populations
- Accelerated liver aging associates with 34–170% increased liver disease risk
- Amyloid-beta clearance pathway identified as novel mechanism in liver aging
Longevity Analysis
Liver function deteriorates as a primary driver of both mortality and systemic health decline, making its accurate assessment crucial for early intervention. This index decouples biological aging from calendar age, revealing that some individuals' livers age faster than others—a signal that conventional clinical markers often miss. Identifying accelerated liver aging opens a window for targeted support of detoxification capacity, metabolic processing, and the broader cascade of systems dependent on hepatic function, before irreversible disease manifests. The genetic and proteomic insights into amyloid dynamics suggest that liver aging is not merely a consequence of wear but involves specific molecular processes amenable to modification.
Original published by Wiley Aging Cell, by Zhiyu Wu, Shanshan Wu, Shuyao Song, Yating Huang, Canqing Yu, Dianjianyi Sun, Pei Pei, Ling Yang, Yiping Chen, Huaidong Du, Robin Walters, Iona Millwood, Hao Xu, Xiaoming Yang, Junshi Chen, Seung Up Kim, Salvatore Petta, Atsushi Nakajima, Emmanuel Tsochatzis, Jérôme Boursier, Elisabetta Bugianesi, Wah‐Kheong Chan, Manuel Romero‐Gomez, José Luis Calleja, Victor de Lédinghen, Laurent Castéra, Arun J. Sanyal, George Boon‐Bee Goh, Philip Noel Newsome, Jian‐Gao Fan, Michelle Lai, Xiao‐Dong Zhou, Zhengming Chen, Jun Lv, Liming Li, Vincent Wai‐Sun Wong, Ming‐Hua Zheng, Yuanjie Pang, on behalf of the China Kadoorie Biobank Collaborative Group and VCTE‐Prognosis Study Group.