Chronic inflammation in the pathogenesis of the metabolic syndrome: Effects of the immune system and desaturases
Abstract
In the course of the last decennium, a decrease in cardiovascular mortality was registered in the Czech Republic and other European countries. Diseases of the heart and vessels are nevertheless holding the first place among the causes of death in our population.
An important share in this lasting unfavourable situation has the increasing prevalence of the metabolic syndrome, which has been shown to be connected with an elevated cardiovascular risk, as well as with an increased incidence of other frequent diseases, e.g. type 2 diabetes mellitus, some tumours, and neuropsychic disturbances. The metabolic syndrome has attracted much interest in the research laboratories all over the world.
Many etiological factors and pathogenetic mechanisms with complicated interrelationships have already been elucidated. In this paper, a special interest is devoted to the activation of the immune system and functional polymorphisms of fatty acid desaturases, the two important factors contributing to the evolution and maintenance of local and systemic chronic inflammation within the framework of the metabolic syndrome.