Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Feb 15, 2015; 6(1): 151-166
Published online Feb 15, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i1.151
Adiponectin: Probe of the molecular paradigm associating diabetes and obesity
Kakali Ghoshal, Maitree Bhattacharyya
Kakali Ghoshal, Maitree Bhattacharyya, Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, Kolkata 700019, India
Author contributions: Ghoshal K and Bhattacharyya M equally contributed to this paper.
Conflict-of-interest: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Maitree Bhattacharyya, Professor, Department of Biochemistry, University of Calcutta, 35, Ballygunge Circular Road, Kolkata 700019, India. bmaitree@gmail.com
Telephone: +91-33-24614712 Fax: +91-33-24614849
Received: August 28, 2014
Peer-review started: August 29, 2014
First decision: September 30, 2014
Revised: October 9, 2014
Accepted: December 16, 2014
Article in press: December 17, 2014
Published online: February 15, 2015
Processing time: 155 Days and 19.6 Hours
Abstract

Type 2 diabetes is an emerging health challenge all over the world as a result of urbanization, high prevalence of obesity, sedentary lifestyle and other stress related factors compounded with the genetic prevalence. The health consequences and economic burden of the obesity and related diabetes mellitus epidemic are enormous. Different signaling molecules secreted by adipocytes have been implicated in the development of obesity and associated insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. Human adiponectin, a 244-amino acid collagen-like protein is solely secreted by adipocytes and acts as a hormone with anti-inflammatory and insulin-sensitizing properties. Adiponectin secretion, in contrast to secretion of other adipokines, is paradoxically decreased in obesity which may be attributable to inhibition of adiponectin gene transcription. There are several mechanisms through which adiponectin may decrease the risk of type 2 diabetes, including suppression of hepatic gluconeogenesis, stimulation of fatty acid oxidation in the liver, stimulation of fatty acid oxidation and glucose uptake in skeletal muscle, and stimulation of insulin secretion. To date, no systematic review has been conducted that evaluate the potential importance of adiponectin metabolism in insulin resistance. In this review attempt has been made to explore the relevance of adiponectin metabolism for the development of diabetes mellitus. This article also identifies this novel target for prospective therapeutic research aiming successful management of diabetes mellitus.

Keywords: Adiponectin; Obesity; Dyslipidemia; Type 2 diabetes mellitus; Insulin resistance

Core tip: Diabetes mellitus and related metabolic disorders like obesity, dyslipidemia are emerging as major global health challenges in recent era. Adiponectin, an adipokine demands profound importance in the field of metabolomics due to its potential role in all these complications. Plasma adiponectin concentration is remarkably lower in subjects with metabolic disorders predicting its significant role as an important biomarker in disease prognosis. We have attempted to enlighten adiponectin function stretching its role as a modulator associating these metabolic obstacles. We believe, this article will surely contribute to the fundamental and clinical research in the field of diabetes and related complications.