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Research Paper|Volume 6, Issue 1|pp 9—25

Serum profiling of healthy aging identifies phospho- and sphingolipid species as markers of human longevity

Ivan Montoliu1, Max Scherer2, Fiona Beguelin2, Laeticia DaSilva2, Daniela Mari3,4, Stefano Salvioli5,6, François-Pierre J. Martin2, Miriam Capri5,6, Laura Bucci5,6, Rita Ostan5,6, Paolo Garagnani5,6, Daniela Monti7, Elena Biagi8, Patrizia Brigidi8, Martin Kussmann2,9,10, Serge Rezzi2, Claudio Franceschi5,6, Sebastiano Collino2
  • 1NESTEC SA, Nestlé Research Center, Vers-chez-les-Blanc, CH-1000 Lausanne 26, Switzerland
  • 2Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences SA, Campus EPFL, Molecular Biomarkers Core, Quartier de l'innovation, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 3Department of Medical Sciences, University of Milan, Milan, Italy
  • 4Geriatric Unit IRCCS Ca' Grande Foundation Maggiore Policlinico Hospital, Milan, Italy
  • 5Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine Experimental Pathology, University of Bologna, Via S. Giacomo 12, 40126 Bologna, Italy
  • 6Interdepartmental Centre “L. Galvani” CIG, University of Bologna, Piazza di Porta S. Donato 1, 40126 Bologna, Italy
  • 7Department of Clinical, Experimental and Biomedical Sciences, University of Florence, Viale Morgagni 50, 50134 Florence, Italy
  • 8Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Bologna, Via Belmeloro 6, 40126 Bologna, Italy
  • 9Faculty of Life Sciences, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland
  • 10Faculty of Science, Interdisciplinary NanoScience Center (iNANO), Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Received: December 5, 2013Accepted: January 19, 2014Published: January 21, 2014
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.100630

Copyright: © 2014 Montoliu et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

As centenarians well represent the model of healthy aging, there are many important implications in revealing the underlying molecular mechanisms behind such successful aging. By combining NMR metabonomics and shot-gun lipidomics in serum we analyzed metabolome and lipidome composition of a group of centenarians with respect to elderly individuals. Specifically, NMR metabonomics profiling of serum revealed that centenarians are characterized by a metabolic phenotype distinct from that of elderly subjects, in particular regarding amino acids and lipid species. Shot- gun lipidomics approach displays unique changes in lipids biosynthesis in centenarians, with 41 differently abundant lipid species with respect to elderly subjects. These findings reveal phospho/sphingolipids as putative markers and biological modulators of healthy aging, in humans. Considering the particular actions of these metabolites, these data are suggestive of a better counteractive antioxidant capacity and a well-developed membrane lipid remodelling process in the healthy aging phenotype.