Adipose tissue participates in the regulation of energy homeostasis
as an important endocrine organ secreting a number of biologically
active adipokines (5). We have previously shown that dietary intake
or intraperitoneal injection of capsaicin reduces visceral fat and obe-sity-induced inflammation by stimulating the expression of adipo-nectin (7,17). Adiponectin, as an adipokine, has recently attracted
much attention. In skeletal muscle, it increases the expression of
molecules involved in fatty acid transport, fatty acid combustion,
and energy dissipation. These changes lower tissue triacyglyceride
content (31). We showed above that the expression of adiponectin
was substantially upregulated by topical capsaicin treatment. Since
plasma adiponectin level is reduced in obesity (5), our findings sug-gest that the reduced visceral fat accumulation resulting from topical
application of capsaicin leads to adiponectin secretion from the vis-ceral adipose tissue. It also remains possible that topical application
of capsaicin increases energy metabolism via the sensory-central
sympathetic nerve axis and suppresses the accumulation of visceral
fat, as does oral administration of the transient receptor potential
vanilloid I