Tomatoes and lycopene : inflammatory modulator effects

Tomato, tomato products as well as lycopene consumption are overall acknowledged to exert anti-inflammatory effects. This has been reported in numerous in vitro, animal and clinical studies, on various tissue and cell types, including adipose tissue and adipocytes, and in several physiopathological contexts, such as cardiovascular diseases, type-2 diabetes, obesity or metabolic syndrome. These anti-inflammatory effects are partly related to tomato and lycopene impact on inflammatory signaling pathways. The goal of this review is to summarize the current knowledge on this topic and to identify gaps that remain to be filled and data that still need to be reinforced in order to definitely demonstrate the interest of tomato or lycopene consumption to blunt the inflammation associated with cardiometabolic diseases