Spermidine enhances metabolic flexibility and attenuates inflammation associated with ageing in farmed Atlantic salmon

Phadwal, K.; Kurian, D.; Haggarty, J.; Migaud, H.; Nicheva, V.; Dick, J.; Salamat, M. K. F.; Whitfield, P. D.; Matthew, C.; Wade, N. M.; Betancor, M. B.; Macqueen, D.

doi:10.64898/2026.03.13.711610

bioRxiv · 10.64898/2026.03.13.711610

Spermidine enhances metabolic flexibility and attenuates inflammation associated with ageing in farmed Atlantic salmon

Phadwal, K.·Kurian, D.·Haggarty, J.·Migaud, H.·Nicheva, V.·Dick, J.·Salamat, M. K. F.·Whitfield, P. D.·Matthew, C.·Wade, N. M.·Betancor, M. B.·Macqueen, D.

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Abstract

Metabolic ageing and associated changes in lipid mobilisation have been most heavily studied in humans and model taxa, yet remain poorly understood in farmed animals, with potentially important uncharacterised implications for health and welfare outcomes in food production systems. Here, we study both processes in domesticated Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), the worlds most commercially valuable farmed fish, comparing three stages of aquaculture production. Our sampling captures a key life-cycle change where juvenile fish transition from freshwater into seawater (smoltification), followed by the ongoing ageing process during a final period of growth in seawater. Integrating lipidomics and proteomics of visceral adipose and skeletal muscle tissue, we firstly identified a metabolic-ageing profile akin to that observed in humans, which was distinct from lipid-associated remodelling associated with earlier smoltification. This was marked by impaired triglyceride storage, dysfunctional autophagy-lysosomal pathways, inflammation, fibrosis and reduced pathogen clearance pathways in visceral adipose tissue. In skeletal muscle, ageing was accompanied by reduced metabolic flexibility together with triglyceride and fatty acid accumulation, depletion of phospholipids, and a reduction in free fatty acids required for ATP production. We go on to provide experimental in vivo evidence that dietary spermidine supplementation suppresses adipose inflammation and reverses age-associated metabolic flexibility by re-establishing the buffering role of adipose tissue and enhancing fatty acid metabolism in skeletal muscle. Importantly, spermidine appears to reprogram lipid flux to counter metabolic ageing. As farmed Atlantic salmon exhibit key features of metabolic ageing observed in humans that appear linked to its recent domestication history, this species offers a novel model for ageing related studies of vertebrate metabolism.

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Phadwal, K., Kurian, D., Haggarty, J., Migaud, H., Nicheva, V., Dick, J., Salamat, M. K. F., Whitfield, P. D., Matthew, C., Wade, N. M., Betancor, M. B., Macqueen, D.. 2026-03-17. Spermidine enhances metabolic flexibility and attenuates inflammation associated with ageing in farmed Atlantic salmon. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.03.13.711610

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