REVIEW ARTICLE
Adiponectin and Inflammation in Health and Disease: An Update
Alice G. Geagea1, Samir Mallat2, *, Charbel F. Matar2, Raymond Zerbe1, Estelle Filfili1, Maria Francis1, Hanine Haidar1, Abdo Jurjus1, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2018Volume: 5
First Page: 20
Last Page: 32
Publisher ID: MEDJ-5-20
DOI: 10.2174/1874220301805010020
Article History:
Received Date: 12/4/2018Revision Received Date: 6/5/2018
Acceptance Date: 12/5/2018
Electronic publication date: 31/05/2018
Collection year: 2018

open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Adiponectin, a protein secreted by adipocytes, gained a special medical attention in the past two decades mostly due to its relation to obesity, a major health problem worldwide. Moreover, adiponectin has shown to have a preventive effect on insulin resistance, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Lately, obesity has been classified as a chronic inflammatory state, whereby dysregulated adipocytes and high infiltration of macrophages shift toward the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α and IL-6 among others. This status contributes to a decrease in adiponectin levels, thus leading to the emergence of obesity related complications. This review will focus on the hormone adiponectin and its mechanisms of action in relation to insulin resistance, diabetes, cardiovascular effect and atherosclerosis. It will also cover the various therapeutic approaches aiming to increase the levels of this important cytokine, and to highlight the promising role of AdipoRon, an adiponectin receptor agonist, and of diet.