Adiponectin and Adiponectin Receptors

Abstract

Metabolic syndrome is thought to result from obesity and obesity-linked insulin resistance. Obesity in adulthood is characterized by adipocyte hypertrophy. Adipose tissue participates in the regulation of energy homeostasis as an important endocrine organ that secretes a number of biologically active "adipokines."Heterozygous peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma knockout mice were protected from high-fat diet induced obesity, adipocyte hypertrophy, and insulin resistance. Systematic gene profiling analysis of these mice revealed that adiponectin/Acrp30 was overexpressed. Functional analyses including generation of adiponectin transgenic or knockout mice have revealed that adiponectin serves as an insulin-sensitizing adipokine. In fact, obesity-linked down-regulation of adiponec