Endocrine Abstracts

Metabolic syndrome is a cascade of metabolic diseases starting with obesity and progressing to atherosclerosis and is often fatal because of serious cardiovascular problems such as heart/brain infarction and hemorrhage. Accumulating evidence has revealed a critical involvement of inflammatory responses triggered by lesional macrophages in its pathogenesis. Importantly, we found that macrophages are associated with the progression of these diseases not only in the induction of ...

During the progression from the lean to the obese state, adipose tissue undergoes hyperplasia as well as hypertrophy in an attempt to cope with the increased demand for triglyceride storage. This requires a high degree of plasticity at both the cellular and at the tissue level. Even though adipose tissue as a whole seems to be a relatively static tissue containing many adipocytes that turn over relatively slowly, these cells are embedded in an environment that can rapidly adap...

Increased body weight and adipose tissue accumulation amplifies the risk of developing various age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes mellitus, musculoskeletal disorders. Adipose tissue-derived secreted pro-inflammatory adipokines generate a chronic low-grade inflammation which contributes to the pathogenesis of obesity-linked complications. Recent advancements in tissue-resident adult stem/progenitor cell research have revealed that inflammation...