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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2020 Jul 13.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Metab. 2019 Mar 14;1(3):334–339. doi: 10.1038/s42255-019-0041-z

Figure 1: Timeline of the discovery of adiponectin.

Figure 1:

First discovered in 1995, adiponectin’s physiological function in humans became soon apparent (2000-2001). Its receptor was discovered in 2003 and important signaling pathways were established. Not only were the genetic deletions of both adiponectin (2002 and 2018) and its receptors AdipoR1/2 (2007) published, but the pleiotropic effects of adiponectin was shown to be mediated by ceramidase function. The small molecule AdipoRon was the first AdipoR agonist (2013). The initial crystal structure of the AdipoR published in 2015 was further refined in 2017, which revealed that it contains an active site reminiscent of an enzymatic function consistent with a ceramidase activity within the receptor itself.