K: Globular adiponectin activates nuclear factor-B in vascular endothelial cells, which in turn induces expression of proinflammatory and adhesion molecule genes. Diabetes Care 29:139–141

Goldstein et al. (1) expressed concern that ourfindings of nuclear factor-B (NF-B) activa-tion by the globular domain adiponectin appearto contradict a substantial body of published and ongoing work. We showed that globular adiponectin activates redox-sensitive transcription factors in two dif-ferent cell types: vascular endothelial cells and cardiac fibroblasts (2,3). These findings do not always contrast with a substantial body of published work. Indeed, a very recent report suggests that adiponectin exerts proinflam-matory activities in colon by inducing production of proinflammatory cytokines and inhibiting bioactivity of protective growth factors (4). As initially reported by Ouchi et al. (5), adiponectin suppresses inflammatory endothelial responses, including reversing the activation of NF-B and reducing adhesion molecule expression. In their study, however, endothelial cells were preincubated for 18 h with adiponectin and then exposed to tumo