A different look on obesity(with regards to immunology)

[historian3x]

I'm any expert in this field so I apologize ahead of time for my ignorance, but I'm someone who is generally curious about the pathology of obesity for some odd reason.

 

I tend to subscribe to the set point theory(or similar models that entail heavily in the biology of obesity) even if it doesn't explain the social-economical aspects of obesity because it does a good job at modeling biological aspects which tend to be more tangible to me.

 

Usually the current research is around energy homeostasis and the mechanisms that control it such as the metabolic and biochemical processes or neuroendocrine aspects like leptin, inuslin, gerhlin, PPY, NPY, etc and then studying it's effects around energy storage or on over-all metabolism because that approach is the most logical after all. This ends up treats obesity mostly as mostly an endocrine or metabolic disorder.

 

So with that said, I was thinking today about the immune system and started wondering if obesity has been approached as an immune system disease or disorder instead of the former because it's well know to modulate immune system function and the fact that fat cells produce adipokines might mean something much more than simply promoting inflammation. That is to say that maybe the immune system is learning to maintain obese states which ends up modulating metabolic function?

 

For example we know that chronic high circulating leptin(a result of being obese) can increases resistance at the specific neuron group(s) in hypothalamus or other tissue and even can modify the transportation across the blood brain barrier. This is one example of "malfunction" in the syndrome/obesity spectrum. However, has anyone ever approached the effects of high levels of adipokines have on tissues or the immune system and it's learning mechanisms?

 

I really don't know, and would like to see the responses of others here who are probably way smarter than me just to see what they say.

 

Edit* "That is to say that maybe the immune system is learning to maintain obese states which ends up modulating metabolic function" Sorry that part may confuse some people. - I mean this in the fact that obesity is not curable, studies show that people tend to regain the lost weight(hence theories such set points or whatever) and the fact that studies now show that even after liposuction the body will make new adipocytes in different places tends to suggest there is some form of energy homeostasis, along the fact that impaired lipid and glucose metabolism never tend to revert to pre-obese states(although they do improve some what).

Edited November 30, 2012 by historian3x