Lipid Peroxidation in Obesity: Can Bariatric Surgery Help?

Obesity and chronic oxidative stress, often being associated with each other in a vicious circle, are important factors of chronic diseases. Although it was usually considered to accompany aging and wealth, global trends show the increase in obesity among children even in Third World countries. Being manifested by an imbalance between energy consumption and food intake, obesity is characterized by an excessive or abnormal fat accumulation, impaired redox homeostasis and metabolic changes often associated with the self-catalyzed lipid peroxidation generating 4-hydroxynonenal, pluripotent bioactive peroxidation product of polyunsaturated fatty acids. Conservative methods targeting obesity produced only modest and transient results in the treatment of morbid obesity. Therefore, in recent years, surgery, primarily bariatric, became an attractive treatment for morbid obesity. Since adipose tissue is well known as a stress organ with pronounced endocrine functions, surgery results in redox balance and metabolic improvement of the entire organism. The source of bioactive lipids and lipid-soluble antioxidants, and the complex pathophysiology of lipid peroxidation should thus be considered from the aspects of personalized and integrative biomedicine to treat obesity in an appropriate way.