Adiponectin – journey from an adipocyte secretory protein to biomarker of the metabolic syndrome

Abstract. Adiponectin is an adipocyte‐derived hormone that was discovered in 1995. Unlike leptin, which was identified around the same time, the clinical relevance of adiponectin remained obscure for a number of years. However, starting in 2001, several studies were published from different laboratories that highlighted the potential antidiabetic, antiatherosclerotic and anti‐inflammatory properties of this protein complex. Methods to measure the protein with high throughput assays in clinical samples were developed shortly thereafter, and as a result hundreds of clinical studies have been published over the past 3 years describing the role of adiponectin in endocrine and metabolic dysfunction. Furthermore,…