Poster Presentation ESA-SRB-ANZOS 2025 in conjunction with ENSA

DXA-measured visceral adipose tissue and accelerated biological ageing in middle-aged adults (128669)

Riorden O'Shea 1 , Jennie Hui 2 3 4 , Chrianna Bharat 2 5 , Kevin Murray 2 , Gillian Arscott 4 , Michael Hunter 2 3 , John Walsh 6 7 , Kun (Kathy) Zhu 6 7
  1. WACHS, Kimberley, WA, Australia
  2. School of Population and Global Health, Univeristy of Western Australia, Perth
  3. Busselton Population Medical Research Institute, Bussleton
  4. Department of Diagnostic Genomics, PathWest Laboratory Medicine QEII, Perth
  5. National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre, Uiversity of New South Wales , Sydney
  6. Medical School, The Univeristy of Western Australia, Perth
  7. Department of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, Perth

Background: Ageing is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality. Obesity, particularly excess visceral adipose tissue (VAT), may accelerate the rate of ageing process, however few studies investigated the relationship of VAT and biological ageing in middle-aged adults. In 4,799 participants (2,614 females, aged 45-69 years) from the Busselton Healthy Ageing Study, we studied the associations of dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA)-derived VAT with two markers of biological ageing, Phenotypic Age Acceleration (PhenoAgeAccel) and leukocyte telomere length (LTL).

Method: Whole body DXA (GE Lunar) was used to estimate VAT mass. Phenotypic Age was calculated using nine standard clinical biomarkers. A subsample of 1,221 randomly selected participants had LTL measured via multiplex quantitative PCR. Sex-stratified linear regression assessed VAT associations with PhenoAgeAccel and LTL, adjusting for lifestyle covariates including smoking history, physical activity, education level and alcohol consumption.

Results: The mean DXA-VAT mass was 1677±873 g in males and 882±598 in females. PhenoAgeAccel (median [IQR]) was +0.56 [-1.95, 3.30] and -1.75 [-4.37, 1.11] years, and mean LTL, expressed as the T/S ratio, was 1.69±0.35 and 1.79±0.35 for males and females, respectively. Higher VAT was associated with increased PhenoAgeAccel in both sexes, and each 100g increase in VAT associated with 0.145 (95% CI 0.123, 0.166) and 0.305 (0.277, 0.334) years more advanced PhenoAgeAccel in males and females, respectively. In females, but not males, increased VAT was associated with reduced LTL T/S ratio (-0.007 (-0.011, -0.002) per 100g increase in VAT). All associations remained significant after further adjustment of BMI and waist circumference in the models.

Conclusion: In middle-aged adults, VAT is associated with accelerated ageing beyond traditional anthropometric measures of obesity. These findings support VAT as a potentially modifiable risk factor for ageing, allowing the potential development of VAT reduction strategies to promote healthy ageing.