Lipidomic and proteomic profiling of farmed Atlantic salmon identified a seawater-stage molecular signature closely resembling mammalian metabolic ageing: impaired triglyceride storage in visceral fat, ectopic lipid accumulation in muscle, diminished autophagy–lysosomal protein markers, and elevated inflammation, fibrosis and senescence markers. Dietary spermidine supplementation shifted tissue lipid distribution and autophagy, inflammation and substrate-handling markers in the direction opposite to that signature. The authors propose farmed salmon as a tractable vertebrate model for studying metabolic ageing and interventions that target it.
Key Points
- Seawater-stage salmon display a mammalian-like metabolic ageing molecular signature.
- Adipose and muscle showed impaired lipid handling, inflammation, senescence markers.
- Dietary spermidine reversed direction of autophagy and lipid-handling markers.
Longevity Analysis
Spermidine's reputation as an autophagy-promoting geroprotector rests largely on rodent, yeast and observational human data; demonstrating comparable directional effects on lipid partitioning and autophagy markers in a large, commercially raised vertebrate broadens the evidence base beyond conventional model organisms. The convergence of impaired adipose triglyceride storage, ectopic muscle lipid accumulation and low-grade inflammation mirrors the lipid-handling failure that underlies human metabolic ageing, suggesting shared and potentially modifiable mechanisms. A fast-growing, genetically tractable vertebrate with a compressed production cycle offers an intermediate testing platform between rodent models and human intervention trials.
Original published by Wiley Aging Cell, by Kanchan Phadwal, Dominic Kurian, Jennifer Haggarty, Herve Migaud, Viktoriya Nicheva, James Dick, Muhammad Khalid F. Salamat, Phillip D. Whitfield, Chessor Matthew, Nicholas M. Wade, Mónica B. Betancor, Daniel J. Macqueen .