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Review
. 2020 Jan 6:13:1-14.
doi: 10.2147/JIR.S229691. eCollection 2020.

Saturated Fatty Acids in Obesity-Associated Inflammation

Heping Zhou  1 , C J Urso  1 , Viren Jadeja  1
Affiliations
Review

Saturated Fatty Acids in Obesity-Associated Inflammation

Heping Zhou et al. J Inflamm Res. .

Abstract

Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of various pathological conditions including insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). Central to these conditions is obesity-associated chronic low-grade inflammation in many tissues including adipose, liver, muscle, kidney, pancreas, and brain. There is increasing evidence that saturated fatty acids (SFAs) increase the phosphorylation of MAPKs, enhance the activation of transcription factors such as nuclear factor (NF)-κB, and elevate the expression of inflammatory genes. This paper focuses on the mechanisms by which SFAs induce inflammation. SFAs may induce the expression inflammatory genes via different pathways including toll-like receptor (TLR), protein kinase C (PKC), reactive oxygen species (ROS), NOD-like receptors (NLRs), and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. These findings suggest that SFAs act as an important link between obesity and inflammation.

Keywords: Toll-like receptor; inflammation; lipid rafts; obesity; protein kinase C; reactive oxygen species; saturated fatty acids.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
SFAs induce inflammation via several potential mechanisms.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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