Resumen

RODRIGUEZ SCULL, Lidia Esther. Obesidad: fisiología, etiopatogenia y fisiopatología. Rev Cubana Endocrinol [online]. 2003, vol.14, n.2. ISSN 1561-2953.

Obesity has turned into a serious health problem worldwide because of its close link to the main causes of mortality and morbidity. The obesity-insulin resistance-diabetes mellitus-blood hypertension relationship has a greater importance today due to the ever increasingly relevant role of obesity in the onset of each of these entities. Knowledge about the physiology of body weight maintenance, on the basis of rupture of physiological mechanisms giving rise to obesity, the discovery and characterization of leptin and its mediators as well as the environmental factors that perpetuate a phenomenon which has genetic causes and are at the same time sociocultural environmental conditioners constitute the main elements of this paper aimed at delving into the topic of obesity as a multi-factor phenomenon with serious clinical consequences.

Palabras clave : OBESITY; GENETICS; ENVIRONMENT.