An adiponectin variant with one or more amino acid modifications relative
to a corresponding parent adiponectin, wherein the adiponectin variant is
not glycosylated, the adiponectin variant does not have residues 1-100
relative to human adiponectin, and wherein the solubility of the variant
is improved by at least 3-fold relative to residues 110-244 of human
adiponectin.