Resumen

RODRIGUEZ SCULL, Lidia Esther. Obesity and its clinical and metabolic consequences. Rev Cubana Endocrinol [online]. 2004, vol.15, n.3. ISSN 1561-2953.

Obesity is a serious problem in world health. During the last three decades, there has been a significant increase of the figure of obese persons about to reach the magnitude of epidemics and of what is more important: its clinical and metabolic consequences. Obesity is closely linked to the main cause of morbimortality and disability: Insulin resitance is maybe its most feared consequence, since a series of metabolic and endothelial alterations related to the development of coronary vascular disease derived from it: diabetes mellitus, arterial hypertension, dyslipidemias and cerebrovascular disease. As body weight increases, the production of cytokines and free fatty acids with effects on insulin is higher, and the sensitivity to their action decreases, resulting in alterations of the vascular wall and tone, as well as of the metabolism of glucides and lipids that give rise to these consequences. With the present review, we propose ourselves to go deep into the role of the fat cell as an endocrine organ or tissue and into the mechanisms known up to now that bring about the clinical and metabolic complications of obesity.

Palabras clave : Obesity; fat cells; insulin resistance; clinical and metabolic consequences.