Adipokines in Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases

Cardiovascular-related metabolic diseases are one of the leading causes of death, highlighting the urgency of developing new treatments. Adipokines are several bioactive polypeptides produced by adipose tissues, including Adiponectin, Leptin, CTRPs etc. Adiponectin is a 244-amino acid adipokine that is abundantly secreted and expressed in adipocytes, endothelial cells and so on. In recent years, Adiponectin has attracted much attention due to its feeding modulation, antidiabetic and anti-inflammation pleiotropic response. Accumulating reports have depicted that adiponectin is a novel protective tool for atherosclerosis and cardiovascular disease. However, different reports have described the protective activity of adiponectin in atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases. It is suggested the associations between adiponectin and vascular risk factors vary across races. It is therefore of urgent need to collect new data and identify the role and molecular mechanisms of adiponectin in cardiometabolic diseases. C1q/TNF-related proteins are a family of adipokines discovered in 2004 produced by different organs, and they possess remarkable structural similarity compared to adiponectin. Through binding with its receptors, adipoR1, adipoR2, CTRPs regulate energy homeostasis. More specifically, they regulate food intake involved in central mechanism, glucose metabolism in peripheral tissues, inflammatory effects in adipose tissues. In a recent study, CTRP9 is a novel cardiokine with a significantly downregulated expression after myocardial infarction states. While it has also showed that in both obese and diabetic models, CTRP6 expression is remarkably upregulated in adipose tissue. CTRP6 could orchestrate and regulate inflammation and glucose consumption via targeting macrophages and adipocytes. More evidence shows that the complicated role they play is similar to adiponectin in obese models. Different CTRPs have specific function in human diseases, but the role of some CTRPs is yet to be understood and elucidated. In conclusion, Adipokines may be new therapies targets against cardiometabolic diseases.

In this Research Topic, we aim to shed light on the current advances on cellular and physiological mechanisms linking adipokines, cardiovascular-related metabolic diseases, as well as pathophysiological and clinical consequences of cardiometabolic diseases induced or protected by adipokines. We hope to provide new therapeutic ideas for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases via precision research.

We welcome submissions of the following subtopics, but not limited to:
1) Adipokines and its receptors: the role as biomarkers and targets for diagnosis of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
2) Approaches profiling proteomics and metabolomics in adipokines dysfunction-related cardiometabolic diseases.
3) Adipokines dysregulation in cardiometabolic diseases.
4) Adipokine-related epigenetic regulations in the pathogenesis of cardiometabolic diseases.
5) The role of Adipokines between cardiometabolic diseases and other diseases, such as: familial hypercholesterolemia, gout, and heumaticarthritis et al.
6) The associations among Adipokines, autophagy and mitophagy in cardiometabolic diseases.