Metabolic syndrome,with abdominal obesity and the associated insulin resistance as central components together with other co-morbidities in diabetes,dyslipidemia and hypertension,is becoming a major medical condition in developed countries that eventually results in macrovascular and microvascular diseases.The detailed mechanisms for development of obesity associated insulin resistance,diabetes and other co-morbidities are incompletely understood.Recent work suggested that fatty acids and their metabolic intermediates play important pathophysiological roles in this disease etiology.My talk will discuss fatty acid metabolic pathways and their relevance to metabolic disorders and accordingly potential molecular targets for prevention and treatment of this debilitating disease.