The increase in circulating inflammatory factors found in obese subjects and the recent
discovery of macrophage infiltration in white adipose tissue (WAT) have opened up new
fields of investigation, allowing a reevaluation of the pathophysiology of human obesity. The
socalled 'low-grade'inflammatory state, which characterizes this complex disease, is
revealed by the moderate, but chronic, systemic rise of a growing panel of molecules with
proinflammatory functions. The qualitative and quantitative alterations in the production of …