**1. Introduction**

The rising prevalence of overweight and obesity in the world has been described as a global pandemic at all stages of life worldwide [1]. Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health with serious health complications and increases the risks of morbidity and the prevalence of several health complications, such as type-2 diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, dyslipidemia, prothrombotic state, insulin

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

resistance, cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, and various types of cancers [2]. A complex interaction between the environmental factors, genetic predisposition, and human behavior is the cause of the current obesity pandemic [3]. Obesity has been linked strongly with metabolic abnormalities including increased blood pressure [4], increased blood sugar [5], and lipid profile abnormalities [6]. Furthermore, obesity has been predisposed to metabolic abnormalities via inflammatory process [7]. In the state of obesity, the pro-inflammatory adipokines, derived from adipose tissue, are overexpressed, increased production, and secretion of inflammatory mediators: interleukin 6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) [8, 9]. The increased circulatory levels of inflammatory mediators particularly IL-6 have been associated with hepatocyte stimulation to synthesize and produce a low-grade systemic inflammation marker C-reactive protein (CRP) [8]. This protein was discovered in 1930 by Tillet and Francis, being insulated in the serum of patients with acute inflammatory processes. Upon its discovery, it was thought that C-reactive protein levels could be a pathogenic secretion for its high levels in patients with multiple pathologies. Finally, the discovery of its synthesis and secretion in the liver closed this discussion [10]. Currently, PCR serum represents an effective clinical indicator of infectious and inflammatory processes in the body, and therefore, it can be used to determine the risk of heart disease and to predict metabolic syndrome and diabetes mellitus [11]. In this sense, the systemic inflammation represented by increased level of highsensitivity CRP (hs-CRP) has been classified as a characteristic feature and an essential cause of many illness conditions including metabolic syndrome [12], atherosclerosis [13], coronary heart disease [14], and cancers [15]. Based on the above, the aims of this work were to provide information on the relationship between obesity and circulating levels of CRP, to describe the basic chemical structure and functions, and to analyze its clinical usefulness in obese patients.
