THE SILENT FLAME OF OBESITY: INFLAMMATION AND RISK FOR DIABETES

Abstract

Introduction: It is important to have a thorough understanding of the inflammatory processes involved in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, aiming to contribute to the development of new therapeutic and control strategies capable of modulating the inflammatory response associated with them. Objective: To gain a deeper understanding of the inflammatory processes involved in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Method: An integative literature review was conducted using information published on online platforms in Portuguese and English. The material for reading and analysis was selected from the SciELO, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus platforms. Initially, a search was performed using the descriptors "obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, TNF-α, IL-6" with AND or OR searches, considering the title and/or abstract. Afterwards, considering only those most closely related to the topic, the full texts were read. Result: Thirty-five articles that met the inclusion criteria were evaluated. Conclusion: TNF-α expression is significantly increased in obese and diabetic animals compared to controls. IL-6, however, requires further investigation, especially in the context of obesity and diabetes in animal models. The studies reinforce the central role of TNF-α in inflammation associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus, validating its usefulness as a more sensitive biomarker.