Visceral fat accumulation has been shown to play crucial roles in the development of
cardiovascular disease as well as the development of
obesity-related disorders such as
diabetes mellitus,
hyperlipidemia and
hypertension and the so-called
metabolic syndrome. Given these clinical findings, adipocytes functions have been intensively investigated in the past 10 years, and have been revealed to act as endocrine cells that have been termed
adipocytokines, which secrete various bioactive substances. Among
adipocytokines,
tumor necrosis factor-alpha,
plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 and
heparin binding
epidermal growth factor-like
growth factor are produced in adipocytes as well as other organs, and may contribute to the development of
vascular diseases.
Visfatin has been identified as a visceral-fat-specific
protein that might be involved in the development of
obesity-related diseases, such as
diabetes mellitus and
cardiovascular disease. On the contrary to these
adipocytokines,
adiponectin, an adipose-tissue-specific,
collagen-like
protein, has been noted as an important antiatherogenic and
antidiabetic protein, or as an anti-inflammatory
protein. The functions of
adipocytokine secretion might be regulated dynamically by nutritional state. Visceral fat accumulation causes dysregulation of adipocyte functions, including oversecretion of
tumor necrosis factor-alpha,
plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 and
heparin binding
epidermal growth factor-like growth and hyposecretion of
adiponectin, which results in the development of a variety of metabolic and circulatory diseases. In this review, the importance of
adipocytokines, especially focusing on
adiponectin is discussed with respect to
cardiovascular diseases.