title: Obesity and eosinophilic inflammation: does leptin play a role.
abstract: It has been pointed out that obesity is a risk factor for, and is involved in the exacerbation of asthma. Mounting evidence about adipose tissue-derived proteins (adipokines) gave rise to the current understanding of obesity as a systemic inflammatory disorder. In this review, we summarized the involvement of leptin, focusing on eosinophil functions. Several studies have indicated that leptin can restrain eosinophil apoptosis, enhance migration, increase adhesion molecules and induce cytokine production. Since leptin also acts on a variety of immune cells related to allergic response, increased leptin in obese individuals potentially explains the mechanism by which obesity leads to an exacerbation of asthma. Further studies targeting adipokines will delineate the association between obesity and eosinophil-associated diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infection, Allergy, Clinical Immunology and Laboratory Medicine, Akita University Graduate School of Medicine, Akita, Japan.
authors.forename: Masahide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takeda
authors.forename: Shigeharu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ueki
authors.forename: Hikari
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kato
authors.forename: Yasunori
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Konno
authors.forename: Mami
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chihara
authors.forename: Masamichi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Itoga
authors.forename: Yoshiki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Moritoki
authors.forename: Wataru
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ito
authors.forename: Hiroyuki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kayaba
authors.forename: Junichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chihara
mesh_terms: D000273:Adipose Tissue / Q000276:immunology; D004802:Eosinophilia / Q000276:immunology*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood / Q000276:immunology*; D009765:Obesity / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D020738:Leptin