Inflammatory components of adipose tissue as target for treatment of metabolic syndrome

Obesity is an independent risk factor in the etiology of various metabolic diseases such as insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. In this chapter, we discuss obesity-induced inflammation as a potential link with obesity-related metabolic syndrome, and discuss how obesity-related inflammatory components such as immune cells, and cytokines/chemokines and adipocy-tokines, provoke obesity-related pathologies. In particular, we focus on the hypothesis that anti-inflammatory food factors/phytochemicals may be useful for inhibiting the initiation and development of obesity-induced inflammation and metabolic syndrome.