Blood spotlight on leukocytes and obesity

The rise of obesity and its attendant pathological sequelae, including type 2 diabetes and coronary artery disease, constitute an ongoing public health catastrophe in both the developed and, more recently, the developing world. Although the underlying pathophysiology is complex, chronic low-grade inflammation has emerged as a central driver of both primary metabolic dysfunction and subsequent tissue failure. Importantly, this inflammation has been shown to arise as a consequence of both the disruption of homeostatic tissue resident leukocytes and the recruitment of antagonistic effector cells from the circulation. In this review, we discuss the roles of visceral adipose tissue's salient leukocyte lineages in the transition to obesity and highlight key points at which this emerging immune axis may be manipulated for therapeutic effect.