Sumitomo Hospital.
Proc Jpn Acad Ser B Phys Biol Sci. 2010;86(2):131-41. doi: 10.2183/pjab.86.131.
Although obesity is a major background of life style-related diseases such as diabetes mellitus, lipid disorder, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, the extent of whole body fat accumulation does not necessarily the determinant for the occurrence of these diseases. We developed the method for body fat analysis using CT scan and established the concept of visceral fat obesity, in other word metabolic syndrome in which intra-abdominal visceral fat accumulation has an important role in the development of diabetes, lipid disorder, hypertension and atherosclerosis. In order to clarify the mechanism that visceral fat accumulation causes metabolic and cardiovascular diseases, we have analyzed gene expression profile in subcutaneous adipose tissue and visceral adipose tissue. From the analysis, we found that adipose tissue, especially visceral adipose tissue expressed abundantly the genes encoding bioactive substances such as cytokines, growth factors and complements. In addition to known bioactive substances, we found a novel collagen-like protein which we named adiponectin. Adiponectin is present in plasma at a very high concentration and is inversely associated with visceral fat accumulation. Adiponectin has anti-diabetic, anti-hypertensive and anti-atherogenic properties and recent studies revealed that this protein has an anti-inflammatory and anti-oncogenic function. Therefore hypoadiponectinemia induced by visceral fat accumulation should become a strong risk factor for metabolic and cardiovascular diseases and also some kinds of cancers.In this review article, I would like to discuss the mechanism of life style-related diseases by focusing on the dysregulation of adiponectin related to obesity, especially visceral obesity.
尽管肥胖是糖尿病、脂质紊乱、高血压和心血管疾病等与生活方式相关疾病的主要背景，但全身脂肪积累的程度并不一定是这些疾病发生的决定因素。我们开发了使用 CT 扫描进行体脂分析的方法，并建立了内脏脂肪肥胖的概念，换句话说，代谢综合征中，腹部内脏脂肪积累在糖尿病、脂质紊乱、高血压和动脉粥样硬化的发展中起着重要作用。为了阐明内脏脂肪积累导致代谢和心血管疾病的机制，我们分析了皮下脂肪组织和内脏脂肪组织中的基因表达谱。从分析中，我们发现脂肪组织，特别是内脏脂肪组织，大量表达细胞因子、生长因子和补体等生物活性物质的编码基因。除了已知的生物活性物质外，我们还发现了一种新型胶原样蛋白，我们将其命名为脂联素。脂联素在血浆中以非常高的浓度存在，与内脏脂肪积累呈负相关。脂联素有抗糖尿病、抗高血压和抗动脉粥样硬化作用，最近的研究表明，这种蛋白质具有抗炎和抗癌作用。因此，内脏脂肪积累引起的脂联素减少应该成为代谢和心血管疾病以及某些癌症的强烈危险因素。在这篇综述文章中，我想通过关注与肥胖相关的脂联素的失调来讨论生活方式相关疾病的机制，特别是内脏肥胖。
