Age and Sex: Impact on adipose tissue metabolism and inflammation

•Adipose tissue dysfunction related inflammation contributes to chronic disease and adverse health outcomes with advancing age.•Aging is associated with increased visceral adiposity, aberrant adipogenesis, altered adipokine secretion and insulin resistance.•Sex differences are observed in adipose tissue re-modeling, collagen deposition and cellular senescence in aging.•Age-related changes in sex steroid hormones lead to changes in immune cell numbers and function of macrophages, dendritic cells, and T and B cells.•Countermeasures targeting adipose tissue offer promise to reduce the burden of age-associated metabolic diseases and increase longevity.