Regular physical exercise (PE) has been recognized as one of the most
powerful lifestyle strategies used to mitigate overweight and obesity. In this context,
white adipose tissue (WAT) plays a pivotal role as it is the largest site of storage and
release of excess energy, thus participating in important metabolic, endocrine and
inflammatory functions, which are intricately linked to the etiology and
pathophysiology of obesity-associated chronic diseases. Moreover, current literature
reports that PE, besides reducing visceral fat accumulation, also mitigates obesityinduced
dysregulated adipokine synthesis and release, resulting in systemic metabolic
improvements through beneficial dynamics changes in WAT. More recently, PEinduced
hormone secretion by skeletal muscle has been described as a potential
mechanism for inducing a brown fat-like phenotype in WAT. Thus, the modulatory
impact of PE on WAT may also occur through the cross-talk between skeletal muscle
and adipose organ axis. In this chapter, we focused on the overall impact of PE on
WAT morphological, metabolic and inflammatory features, on the cross-talk between
skeletal muscle and WAT as well as on the potential mediators of this process,
providing an overview of the effects of PE on the obesity-related underlying pathways.
Keywords: Adipocyte turnover, Adiponectin, Angiogenesis, Apoptosis,
Autophagy, Browning, Endurance training, Ghrelin, Inflammation, Interleukin 6
