Obesity is characterized by an excessive accumulation of fat leading to a plethora
of medical complications, including coronary artery disease, hypertension, type 2
diabetes mellitus or impaired glucose tolerance and dyslipidemia. Formerly, several
physiological roles of organokines, including adipokines, hepatokines, myokines and
gut hormones have been described in obesity, especially in the regulation of glucose
and lipid metabolism, insulin sensitivity, oxidative stress, and low-grade inflammation.
The canonical effect of these biologically active peptides and proteins may serve
as an intermediate regulatory level that connects the central nervous system and the
endocrine, autocrine, and paracrine actions of organs responsible for metabolic and
inflammatory processes. Better understanding of the function of this delicately tuned
network may provide an explanation for the wide range of obesity phenotypes with remarkable
inter-individual differences regarding comorbidities and therapeutic responses. The
aim of this review is to demonstrate the role of organokines in the lipid and glucose
metabolism focusing on the obese non-diabetic subgroup. We also discuss the latest
findings about sarcopenic obesity, which has recently become one of the most relevant
metabolic disturbances in the aging population.
