Adipose tissue is an active endocrine organ that responds to changes in energy balance and influences whole-body physiology. Adipose tissue dysfunction with obesity is associated with metabolic disease, neurodegeneration, inflammation, and cancer, whereas calorie restriction (CR) decreases both adiposity and disease risk. Although resveratrol does not affect obesity, it mimics long-term CR by increasing both life span in model organisms and health span in rodents. Because resveratrol's benefits in experimental animals are reminiscent of improved adipose tissue function under CR, this review synthesizes existing data to assess if resveratrol's effects may be mediated by mimicking CR in adipose tissue. In metabolically unhealthy humans, resveratrol consumption recapitulates the health benefits of CR, whereas short-term resveratrol in otherwise healthy humans mimics CR at the transcriptional, but not physiological, level. This latter observation (neutral effect of short-term resveratrol) may be protective against future disease risk; however, long-term studies in healthy humans will be needed to support this hypothesis.
Keywords: adipose tissue; aging; calorie restriction mimetics; nutrigenomics; obesity; type 2 diabetes.
© 2013 New York Academy of Sciences.