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Updated: Oct 7, 2025

An Adipocyte Cell Culture Model to Study the Impact of Protein and Micro-RNA Modulation on Adipocyte Function
Published on: May 4, 2021
Adiponectin: a pleiotropic hormone with multifaceted roles
S S Shklyaev1, G A Melnichenko2, N N Volevodz2
1National Research Center for Endocrinology of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation; A. Tsyb Medical Radiological Research Center - Branch of the National Medical Research Radiological Center of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.
Abstract:
Adipose tissue mostly composed of different types of fat is one of the largest endocrine organs in the body playing multiple intricate roles including but not limited to energy storage, metabolic homeostasis, generation of heat, participation in immune functions and secretion of a number of biologically active factors known as adipokines. The most abundant of them is adiponectin. This adipocite-derived hormone exerts pleiotropic actions and exhibits insulin-sensitizing, antidiabetic, anti-obesogenic, anti-inflammatory, antiatherogenic, cardio- and neuroprotective properties. Contrariwise to its protective effects against various pathological events in different cell types, adiponectin may have links to several systemic diseases and malignances. Reduction in adiponectin levels has an implication in COVID-19-associated respiratory failure, which is attributed mainly to a phenomenon called 'adiponectin paradox'. Ample evidence about multiple functions of adiponectin in the body was obtained from animal, mostly rodent studies. Our succinct review is entirely about multifaceted roles of adiponectin and mechanisms of its action in different physiological and pathological states.
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