Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Rheumatoid arthritis

The multifaceted role of adiponectin in inflammatory joint disease

Adipocytokines are usually regarded as signaling molecules that originate from and act within the adipose tissue. However, recent data show that adipocytokines, especially adiponectin, exert various functions throughout the organism that are neither unambiguously protective nor solely harmful.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Laurberg, T. B. et al. Plasma adiponectin in patients with active, early, and chronic rheumatoid arthritis who are steroid- and disease-modifying antirheumatic drug-naïve compared with patients with osteoarthritis and controls. J. Rheumatol. 36, 1885–1891 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Giles, J. T., Allison, M., Bingham, C. O. 3rd & Scott, W. M. Jr. Adiponectin is a mediator of the inverse association of adiposity with radiographic damage in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Care Res. 61, 1248–1256 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Scherer, P. E., Williams, S., Fogliano, M., Baldini, G. & Lodish, H. F. A novel serum protein similar to C1q, produced exclusively in adipocytes. J. Biol. Chem. 270, 26746–26749 (1995).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Kadowaki, T. & Yamauchi, T. Adiponectin and adiponectin receptors. Endocrine Rev. 26, 439–451 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Neumeier, M. et al. Different effects of adiponectin isoforms in human monocytic cells. J. Leukoc. Biol. 79, 803–808 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Bruun, J. M. et al. Regulation of adiponectin by adipose tissue-derived cytokines: in vivo and in vitro investigations in humans. Am. J. Physiol. Endocrinol. Metab. 285, E527–E533 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Trujillo, M. E. & Scherer, P. E. Adiponectin—journey from an adipocyte secretory protein to biomarker of the metabolic syndrome. J. Intern. Med. 257, 167–175 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Goldstein, B. J. & Scalia, R. Adiponectin: a novel adipokine linking adipocytes and vascular function. J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 89, 2563–2568 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Ehling, A. et al. The potential of adiponectin in driving arthritis. J. Immunol. 176, 4468–4478 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Luo, X. H. et al. Adiponectin stimulates RANKL and inhibits OPG expression in human osteoblasts through the MAPK signaling pathway. J. Bone Miner. Res. 21, 1648–1656 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulf Müller-Ladner.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Müller-Ladner, U., Neumann, E. The multifaceted role of adiponectin in inflammatory joint disease. Nat Rev Rheumatol 5, 659–660 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2009.232

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrrheum.2009.232

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing