Abstract
Obesity is an increasingly costly and widespread epidemic, effecting 1 in 10 adults worldwide. It has been causally linked with both the metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance, both of which are associated with increased chronic inflammation. The exact mechanisms through which inflammation may contribute to both MetS and IR are numerous and their details are still largely unknown. Recently, micro-RNAs (miRNAs) have emerged as potential interventional targets due to their potential preventive roles in the pathogenesis of several diseases, including MetS and obesity. The purpose of this review paper is to discuss some of the known roles of miRNAs as mediators of inflammation-associated obesity and IR and how omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids may be used as a nutritional intervention for these disorders.
Footnotes
Contributors All authors contributed to the submitted paper and approved the submitted version.
Funding This work was funded in part by the Presidential Cluster Hire Tier Obesity Research Cluster at Texas Tech University, SPRINT funds (TTU) FAPESP TTU to NMM and LRF, and CAPES (TR). NMM is supported in part by NIH/NCCIH grant #R15AT00887901A1.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
