Rapamycin Reverses the Hepatic Response to Diet-Induced Metabolic Stress That Is Amplified by Aging.
Aging is associated with increased susceptibility to metabolic stress and chronic liver disease, yet the interactions between age and metabolic stressors and the potential for ameliorating interventions remain incompletely understood. Here, we examined the hepatic response of young (7-month-old) and old (25-month-old) C57BL/6 male mice to a 9-week high-fat diet (HFD) and assessed whether rapamycin, a well-established pro-longevity intervention, could mitigate age-exacerbated effects. While both age groups developed metabolic-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), older mice displayed more severe hepatic steatosis, inflammation, and transcriptional dysregulation. Transcriptomic profiling of whole livers and purified hepatocytes revealed that aging amplifies HFD-induced inflammatory and metabolic gene expression changes, including activation of immune pathways and suppression of metabolic pathways. Notably, treatment of aging mice with rapamycin reversed the majority of HFD-driven transcriptional alterations, including upregulation of pro-inflammatory regulators such as Stat1, and dysregulation of metabolic gene networks. Rapamycin also reduced hepatosteatosis, total body weight, and a tumorigenic transcriptomic signature associated with hepatocellular carcinoma risk. These findings demonstrate that aging intensifies hepatic sensitivity to dietary metabolic stress and identify rapamycin as a promising therapeutic to counteract age-related liver dysfunction and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) progression. Overall design: Three cohorts were examined: normal diet (ND) + vehicle, high fat diet (HFD, 60% calories from fat) + vehicle and high fat diet + rapamycin (42ppm). Mice were initiated on either ND + vehicle or ND + rapamycin at 4-months of age. Once mice reached 18-months of age, they were either maintained on ND + vehicle, or HFD + vehicle, HFD + rapamycin for 9-weeks. Mice were maintained until euthanized and heptocytes were isolated using 2-step perfusion protocol.