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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Diabetes. Nov 10, 2015; 6(15): 1296-1308
Published online Nov 10, 2015. doi: 10.4239/wjd.v6.i15.1296
Role of adiponectin and some other factors linking type 2 diabetes mellitus and obesity
Chandra Kanti Chakraborti
Chandra Kanti Chakraborti, Kanak Manjari Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Rourkela 769015, Odisha, India
Author contributions: Chakraborti CK solely contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author has no conflict of interests.
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: Dr. Chandra Kanti Chakraborti, Professor, Kanak Manjari Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chhend, Rourkela 769015, Odisha, India. chandrakanti_12@rediffmail.com
Telephone: +91-0977-6145092 Fax: +91-0661-2480752
Received: July 9, 2015
Peer-review started: July 14, 2015
First decision: August 25, 2015
Revised: September 14, 2015
Accepted: October 23, 2015
Article in press: October 27, 2015
Published online: November 10, 2015
Abstract

Because of the intimate association of obesity with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), during the last two decades, extensive research work is being conducted to find out whether the coexistence of the two is a simple association or there is a positive correlating link between the two. In this article, an attempt has been made to collect and analyse the recent developments in this field and to arrive at a conclusion on the subject. The possible role of several important factors (obtained from adipocytes/not of adipocyte origin) in linking the two has been discussed in detail. Some of the agents, specifically adiponectin, are beneficial (i.e., reduce the incidence of both), while others are harmful (i.e., increase their incidence). From the analysis, it appears that obesity and T2DM are intimately linked.

Keywords: Obesity, Insulin, Insulin resistance, Type 2 diabetes mellitus, Adipocyte

Core tip: The objective of this article is to establish the connection of obesity with that of insulin resistance (IR) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) by analyzing the recent developments in this field. The factors linking the three have been found to be some adipocytokines as well as certain other factors not of adipocyte origin. Of these, adiponectin appears to play the most beneficial role (so also leptin, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors, apelin, etc.), while others (tumour necrosis factor-alpha, interleukin-6, resistin, retinol binding protein-4, dipeptidyl peptidase-4, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, visfatin, free fatty acid, angiotensin II and toll-like receptors) are harmful. Agonists and antagonists of these factors may be designed to fight against obesity, thereby achieving protection for IR and T2DM.