Dietary modulators of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors: implications for the prevention and treatment of metabolic syndrome.
In its simplest form, obesity is a state characterized by nutrient overabundance leading to hypertrophy of storage cells in white adipose tissue and the deposition of excess lipids into key metabolic regions, such as skeletal muscle and liver. Ever so steadily, this condition begins to manifest itself as progressive insulin resistance and thus ensues a myriad of other chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and hypertension, which all fall into the realm of the metabolic syndrome. To offset imbalances in nutrient availability, however, it appears that nature has developed the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs), a family of endogenous lipid sensors that adeptly modulate our rates of macronutrient oxidation and regulate the systemic inflammatory response, which itself is tightly linked to the development of obesity-induced chronic disease. By understanding how PPARs alpha, delta and gamma act jointly to maintain metabolic homeostasis and reduce the chronic inflammation associated with obesity, we may one day discover that the machinery needed to defeat obesity and control the devastating consequences of the metabolic syndrome have been with us the entire time.
Laboratory of Nutritional Immunology and Molecular Nutrition, Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA.
Amir J
AJ
Guri
Raquel
R
Hontecillas
Josep
J
Bassaganya-Riera
D017667:Adipocytes / Q000473:pathology; D000818:Animals; D004032:Diet; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D006984:Hypertrophy; D007249:Inflammation / Q000150:complications / Q000378:metabolism; D007333:Insulin Resistance / Q000502:physiology; D050356:Lipid Metabolism / Q000502:physiology; D024821:Metabolic Syndrome / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000628:therapy*; D009747:Nutritional Physiological Phenomena; D009765:Obesity / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology; D047492:Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors / Q000819:agonists* / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors* / Q000378:metabolism
D047492:Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors; D005947:Glucose