title: Immunological goings-on in visceral adipose tissue.
abstract: Chronic, low-grade inflammation of visceral adipose tissue, and systemically, is a critical link between recent strikingly parallel rises in the incidence of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Macrophages have been recognized for some time to be critical participants in obesity-induced inflammation of adipose tissue. Of late, a score of other cell types of the innate and adaptive arms of the immune system have been suggested to play a positive or negative role in adipose tissue infiltrates. This piece reviews the existing data on these new participants; discusses experimental uncertainties, inconsistencies, and complexities; and puts forward a minimalist synthetic scheme.
authors.affiliation: Division of Immunology, Department of Microbiology and Immunobiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: cbdm@hms.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Diane
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mathis
mesh_terms: D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology; D003924:Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000276:immunology; D007333:Insulin Resistance / Q000276:immunology*; D050152:Intra-Abdominal Fat / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008264:Macrophages / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D055611:Natural Killer T-Cells / Q000276:immunology; D009765:Obesity / Q000378:metabolism*; D013601:T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology