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Review
. 2020 May 18;21(10):3570.
doi: 10.3390/ijms21103570.

Adipokines and Obesity. Potential Link to Metabolic Disorders and Chronic Complications

Katarzyna Zorena  1 , Olga Jachimowicz-Duda  2 , Daniel Ślęzak  3 , Marlena Robakowska  4 , Małgorzata Mrugacz  5
Affiliations
Review

Adipokines and Obesity. Potential Link to Metabolic Disorders and Chronic Complications

Katarzyna Zorena et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized obesity as one of the top ten threats to human health. It is estimated that the number of obese and overweight people worldwide exceeds the number of those who are undernourished. Obesity is not only a state of abnormally increased adipose tissue in the body, but also of increased release of biologically active adipokines. Adipokines released into the circulating blood, due to their specific receptors on the surface of target cells, act as classic hormones affecting the metabolism of tissues and organs. What is more, adipokines and cytokines may decrease the insulin sensitivity of tissues and induce inflammation and development of chronic complications. Certainly, it can be stated that in an era of a global obesity pandemic, adipokines may gain more and more importance as regards their use in the diagnostic evaluation and treatment of diseases. An extensive search for materials on the role of white, brown and perivascular fatty tissue and obesity-related metabolic and chronic complications was conducted online using PubMed, the Cochrane database and Embase.

Keywords: adipokines; diabetic foot; inflammation; metabolic disorders; obesity; psoriasis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no potential competing interests with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The conversion between adipocytes. Yellow arrows: white-brown-white adipocytes transdifferentiation, white-to-pink transdifferentiation, pink-to-brown transdifferentiation (🡆blue arrow: hypothesis which needs to be proved). Modified Figure 4 of [34], and Figure 2 of [35].
Figure 2
Figure 2
The disregulation pathway of adipokines potentially leading to metabolic disorders and chronic complications in the course of obesity.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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