[Obesity and atherosclerosis--two faces of chronic inflammation]

A growing body of evidence suggests that chronic inflammation plays a key role in initiation and development of metabolic disease as well as atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. For instance, it is known that plasma levels of inflammatory cytokines are increased in obese subjects. Recently it has also been demonstrated that obese adipose tissue is a site of chronic inflammation. Obesity of visceral adipose tissue induces the features of chronic inflammation, including endothelia-leukocyte interactions, macrophage infiltration, coupled adipogenesis and angiogenesis, adipocyte cell death, and tissue remodeling. These features of chronic inflammation are also found in atherogenesis. Therefore, it is very likely that the common cellular and molecular mechanisms underlie pathogenesis of both cardiovascular and metabolic systems in obesity.