Since the discovery of Leptin in 1994 and then later adiponectin there has been a fundamental shift in how adipose tissue is viewed within the medical and research community, as an active endocrine organ which effects human health and physiology (57,87). In 2004, Wong et al. characterized a novel family of adipose tissue-derived cytokines, collectively called adipokines, referred to as Complement C1q Tumor necrosis factor-Related Proteins (CTRPs) (76), like adiponectin and tumor necrosis factor (TNF) these CTRPs all contain a C1q globular domain and are characterized together as the C1q/TNF superfamily (62). To date, this superfamily has been documented to have a wide range and opposing effects on metabolism, food intake, inflammation, tumor metastasis, apoptosis, vascular disorders, ischemic injury, and even sexual reproduction (7, 8, 25, 29, 30, 49, 51, 57, 62, 64, 68, 69, 74-76, 81, 84, 89). The purpose of this review is to carefully summarize the research that has been accomplished on one of these proteins, CTRP3. A list of abbreviations used in this article is found in Table 1.
