The role of innate immune cells in obese adipose tissue inflammation and development of insulin resistance

Abstract

Obesity is characterised by a chronic state of low-grade inflammation in different tissues including the vasculature. There is a causal link between adipose tissue (AT) inflammation and obesity-related metabolic complications, such as the development of insulin resistance and subsequently of type 2 diabetes. Intense efforts in the recent years have aimed at dissecting the pathophysiology of AT inflammation. The role of both innate and adaptive immune cells, such as macrophages or cytotoxic T cells in AT inflammation has been demonstrated. Besides these cells, more leukocyte subpopulations have been recently implicated in obesity, including neutrophils and eosinophils, mast cells, natural killer cells or dendritic cells. The involvement of multiple leukocyte subpopulations underlines the complexity of obesity-associated AT inflammation. In this review, we discuss the role of innate immune cells in AT inflammation, obesity and related metabolic disorders.