Obesity and Inflammatory Adipokines: Practical Implications for Exercise Prescription

Obesity is a complex disease with a multifaceted etiology with its own physiopathology, co-morbidities and disabiliting capacities. It is crucial that obesity is acknowledged as a disease in order to treat it. Nowadays, the adipose tissue is the main focus of obesity research due to the improvement in the last decade on biological function of this tissue. It is now clear that white adipose tissue release a large amount of bioactive peptides called adipokines (which are proteins synthesized and released by adipose tissue). Thus, the aim of this review was to investigate the relationship between obesity and inflammatory adipokines, trying to discuss the role of physical exercise in the treatment of this pathology. The results have shown that one of the most important recent discoveries is the concept that obesity is characterized by a chronic inflammation state. Among all adipokines, IL-6, TNF-alpha, leptin (pro-inflammatory) and adiponectin (anti-inflammatory), have received special attention from the specialized literature. High concentration of these adipokines promotes impact in several body functions, which is strongly linked with cardiovascular diseases. Since obesity is considered an inflammatory disease, and exercise directly modulates this process, it is essential that one of the main aims of exercise therapies is the improvement of the inflammatory response of obese individuals.