Adiponectin: The good adipokine

Or is it? Produced by small adipocytes, adiponectin has been known through the AMPK signaling pathway to increase glucose sensitivity, promote fatty acid catabolism and also to have energy conserving effects. Many have linked adiponectin to inflammation due to its inverse relationship with proinflammatory cytokines in metabolic syndrome, T2D and obesity.
These roles are only applicable in metabolic dysfunction. New evidence suggests that levels of the 'good' cytokine increase in other inflammatory disease states such as rheumatoid arthritis, chrohn's disease and others. It's relationship to other proinflammatory cytokines in the classic chronic inflammation seem to be synergistic. Instead of suppressing adiponectin, TNF a actually enhances its proinflammatory functions in these other disease states. Adiponectin is also in much higher concentration in general than other cytokines suggesting many different roles. In fact, the adipokine seems to serve different roles even in the same tissues depending on other mediators as seen in the visceral adipose tissue of Chron's disease. The diverse roles of adiponectin open a whole new area of study which could lead to better understanding of to the roles of adipose in inflammatory states.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18061654