title: Metabolic syndrome pathophysiology: the role of adipose tissue.
abstract: The metabolic syndrome comprises a set of metabolic and physiological risk factors associated with elevated cardiovascular disease risk. The expression of each one of its major factors (hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, hypertension, abdominal obesity, and insulin resistance) has been found to be the result of complex interactions between genetic and environmental factors. Moreover, one of them, obesity, may play a major role in triggering the metabolic syndrome by interacting with genetic variants at candidate genes for dyslipidemia, hypertension, and insulin resistance. In support of this hypothesis, several studies at several candidate genes, mainly adipokines and perilipin, have already demonstrated the significance of these interactions; however, the information and its solidity are still very limited and in many cases, replication studies are still lacking in the literature. Therefore, more studies with better epidemiological design and standardized adiposity measures are needed to estimate the contribution of body weight and fat distribution to the genetic predisposition to the metabolic syndrome, the most common CVD risk factor in industrialized societies.
authors.affiliation: Jean Mayer-US Department of Agriculture Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. jose.ordovas@tufts.edu
authors.forename: Jose M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Ordovas
authors.forename: Dolores
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Corella
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000235:genetics / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000070778:Perilipin-1; D010750:Phosphoproteins / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D002352:Carrier Proteins; D000070778:Perilipin-1; D010750:Phosphoproteins