Adipose Tissue Macrophage-Mediated Inflammation in Obesity: A Link to Posttranslational Modification

ABSTRACT

Adipose tissue macrophages (ATM) are an essential type of immune cells in adipose tissue. Obesity induces the inflammation of adipose tissues, as expressed by ATM accumulation, that is more likely to become a source of systemic metabolic diseases, including insulin resistance. The process is characterized by the transcriptional regulation of inflammatory pathways by virtue of signaling molecules such as cytokines and free fatty acids. Notably, posttranslational modification (PTM) is a key link for these signaling molecules to trigger the proinflammatory or anti-inflammatory phenotype of ATMs. This review focuses on summarizing the functions and molecular mechanisms of ATMs regulating inflammation in obese adipose tissue. Furthermore, the role of PTM is elaborated, hoping to identify new horizons of treatment and prevention for obesity-mediated metabolic disease.

KEYWORDS:

• Adipose tissue macrophages
• inflammation
• obesity
• posttranslational modifications

Author contributions

SC supervised and conceived the work. DW is responsible for writing original draft. XT and XZ reviewed and revised the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analyzed in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by National Key Research and Development Program of China [2021YFF1000602] and Shaanxi Province Key R&D Program [2021NY-020] and the Major National Scientific Research Projects [2015CB943102].