Adipokine in Metabolic Liver Disease: Adipo-Brain-Liver Cross talk

Adipokines play a key role in the interaction between the brain, liver, and adipose tissue. In this review, we selected adipokines with wide central receptor expression and summarized their indirect regulation on liver metabolism by acting on specific neurons and inducing neuropeptide production.

A thorough PubMed search of peer-reviewed studies was conducted using suitable keywords.

Since adipokine receptors could be expressed in both the brain and liver, adipokines could regulate energy homeostasis either directly through receptors expressed in the liver or indirectly by acting centrally. The latter can be achieved by acting in brain regions that have neural projections to the liver. Furthermore, growing evidence demonstrates that adipokines, while playing the above roles, are closely linked to the progression of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

This review revealed that adipose tissue could be involved in regulating liver-brain cross talk during energy regulation and metabolism-related diseases. In addition, we focused on the relationship between the mechanism of action of these adipokines and the progression of metabolic syndromes such as NAFLD and explored their potential as novel biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the treatment of metabolic diseases.