Abstract
As ageing is a major risk factor for the development of non-communicable diseases, extending healthspan has become a medical and societal necessity. Precise lipid phenotyping that captures metabolic individuality could support healthspan extension strategies. This study applied ‘omic-scale lipid profiling to characterise sex-specific age-related differences in the serum lipidome composition of healthy humans. A subset of the COmPLETE-Health study, composed of 73 young (25.2 ± 2.6 years, 43% female) and 77 aged (73.5 ± 2.3 years, 48% female) clinically healthy individuals, was investigated, using an untargeted liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry approach. Compared to their younger counterparts, aged females and males exhibited significant higher levels in 138 and 107 lipid species representing 15 and 13 distinct subclasses, respectively. Percentage of difference ranged from 5.8% to 61.7% (females) and from 5.3% to 46.0% (males), with sphingolipid and glycerophophospholipid species displaying the greatest amplitudes. Remarkably, specific sphingolipid and glycerophospholipid species, previously described as cardiometabolically favourable, were found elevated in aged individuals. Furthermore, specific ether-glycerophospholipid and lyso-glycerophosphocholine species displayed higher levels in aged females only, revealing a more favourable lipidome evolution in females. Altogether, age determined the circulating lipidome composition, while lipid species analysis revealed additional findings that were not observed at the subclass level.
Highlights
The ageing of the world’s population contributes largely to the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases [1]
The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the concept of healthy ageing, which focuses on the preservation of physiological functions across the course of life to increase healthspan [1,2]
Following the technological advances in mass spectrometry and bioinformatics, lipidomics has evolved into a high-throughput approach to allow for an in-depth investigation of lipid metabolism—at the species level [13,14]
Summary
The ageing of the world’s population contributes largely to the growing prevalence of non-communicable diseases [1]. The World Health Organization (WHO) launched the concept of healthy ageing, which focuses on the preservation of physiological functions across the course of life to increase healthspan [1,2] To implement this concept into clinical practice, new phenotyping tools that could capture metabolic individuality and stratify patients with respect to potential health decline and disease onset, are needed [8,9]. Following the technological advances in mass spectrometry and bioinformatics, lipidomics has evolved into a high-throughput approach to allow for an in-depth investigation of lipid metabolism—at the species level [13,14] In light of their involvement in numerous biological processes, lipids are believed to act as key modulators of health, ageing and pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases [12,15,16]. Ceramides could become the “new cholesterol” in daily clinical practice [30]
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