Research
Hormonal
Adipose tissue acts as an endocrine organ, secreting hormones like leptin and adiponectin that regulate systemic metabolism, insulin sensitivity, and energy expenditure.
Understand that your fat cells send signals to your brain and other organs. Healthy fat levels help regulate hunger (leptin) and insulin sensitivity (adiponectin). Disrupting these signals through extreme dieting or obesity can lead to metabolic dysfunction.
StrongSupportsVERY_HIGH confidence
Over the past two decades it has become clear that in addition to their roles in energy storage, adipose tissues are endocrine organs secreting a large number of factors with hormonal, autocrine, and paracrine properties
Why this rating
Extensively documented in the literature and this review.
Source
Altered adipose tissue and adipocyte function in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome
C. Ronald Kahn et al. · Journal of Clinical Investigation · 2019
DOI 10.1172/jci129187
narrative_reviewCited 661×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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- Visceral adipose tissue accumulation drives insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, whereas subcutaneous adipose tissue accumulation is protective or neutral.Good
- Lipodystrophy (loss of adipose tissue) causes the same metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance as obesity, proving that adipose tissue is essential for metabolic health.Good
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