How obesity and pulmonary fibrosis are linked

DZL scientists Prof Mareike Lehmann and Prof Miguel Alejandre-Alcazar from Justus Liebig University Giessen have received over half a million euros from the German Research Foundation (DFG) to investigate the link between obesity and lung ageing.

The risk of the chronic lung disease idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) increases with age. This indicates an age-related loss of the lungs' defence and regeneration mechanisms. Inflammation can trigger and accelerate ageing processes, a process known as "inflamm-aging". In addition, unfavourable environmental influences, especially at a young age, affect the balance between ageing and anti-ageing mechanisms.

Obesity is a disease of chronic inflammation, and overweight or obese people show age-related characteristics. There is also growing evidence that lifestyle factors, such as obesity, are important risk factors for the development of IPF. Earlier data from the Giessen researchers also show that obesity at an early age causes a deviation in the structural maturation of the lungs and increases the risk of chronic lung disease due to inflammation of the fatty tissue.

New starting points for prevention and therapy

As obesity and ageing processes have similar molecular mechanisms, Lerhmann and Alcazar want to determine whether obesity with overactive adipose tissue accelerates ageing and increases susceptibility to lung diseases through an interaction between adipose tissue and the lungs.

They are investigating how diet-induced obesity in early and adult life affects the metabolic and ageing processes of the lung epithelium in a mouse model. They also plan to investigate whether obesity accelerates ageing processes and exacerbates pulmonary fibrosis in mice. They want to use their findings to develop preventive and therapeutic strategies for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) associated with obesity.