Besides the role in energy storing and body health isolating, adipose tissue produces proteins, the so-called adipokines, with pro-inflammatory or anti-inflammatory actions that contribute to metabolic control and to appetite and energy expenditure regulation. The marked adipose tissue loss following bariatric surgery corresponds to a rearrangement of serum adipokine pattern, with increase of anti-inflammatory and decrease of pro-inflammatory agents. This might play a relevant role in the postoperative improvement of metabolic conditions. However, after surgically induced weight loss, other investigations failed to evidence significant modifications of serum concentration of some adipokines. This review speculates that the composition of adipose tissue lost could influence postoperative changes in some adipokine concentration and that an adequate adipokine pattern plays a pivotal role for the long-term metabolic outcome.
Keywords: Adipokines; Bariatric surgery; Obesity.