A Personalized Approach to Metabolic Aspects of Obesity

Excessive consumption of fructose causes cardiometabolic dysfunctions through oxidative stress and inflammation

A rapid rise in obesity, as well as physical inactivity, in industrialized countries is associated with fructose-consumption-mediated metabolic syndrome having a strong association with cardiovascular disease. Although insulin resistance is thought to be at the core, visceral obesity, hypertension, and hypertriglyceridemia are also considered important components of this metabolic disorder. In addition, various other abnormalities such as inflammation, oxidative stress, and elevated levels of uric acid are also part of this syndrome. Lifestyle changes through improved physical activity, as well as nutrition, are important approaches to minimize metabolic syndrome and its deleterious effects.

Redox-inflammatory synergy in the metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) comprises interrelated disease states including obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes (T2DM), dyslipidemia, and hypertension. Essential to normal physiological function, and yet massively damaging in excess, oxidative stress and inflammation are pivotal common threads among the pathologies of MetS. Increasing evidence indicates that redox and inflammatory dysregulation parallels the syndrome's physiological, biochemical, and anthropometric features, leading many to consider the pro-oxidative, pro-inflammatory milieu an unofficial criterion in itself. Left unchecked, cross-promotion of oxidative stress and inflammation creates a feed-forward cycle that can initiate and advance disease progression. Such redox-inflammatory integration is evident in the pathogenesis of obesity, insulin resistance and T2DM, atherogenic dyslipidemia, and hypertension, and is thus hypothesized to be the "common soil" from which they develop. The present review highlights the synergistic contributions of redox-inflammatory processes to each of the components of the MetS.