Study finds tilpotide may activate brown fat rather than just reduce appetite

2026/10/05 11:47

A new mouse study finds that an ingredient in a common weight-loss drug may turn on the energy-consuming "brown fat" in the body. Schematic diagram, the characters in the picture have nothing to do with the news. (Picture taken from shutterstock)

[Compiled by Chen Chengliang/Comprehensive Report] "Slimming injections" are often thought to help weight loss mainly by reducing appetite and reducing food intake. However, the latest mouse research has found that one of the common weight-loss drug ingredients may have another way of action, which can activate the "brown fat" in the body that is responsible for consuming energy, giving scientists more clues about how this type of drug affects metabolism.

According to the science website "Science Daily", a research team from the University of Barcelona in Spain conducted experiments on obese mice. The research object was tirzepatide, an ingredient currently used in drugs such as Mounjaro and Zepbound. Studies have found that in addition to reducing food intake, tilpotide may also directly affect adipose tissue, with significant activation of brown fat.

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Eliminating the factor of eating less, mice still burn calories

The research team specially designed the experiment to allow the mice that did not receive the drug to eat the same amount of food as the mice that received the drug, and then compared the changes in adipose tissue of the two groups of animals. This arrangement is to eliminate the influence caused by "simply eating less" and to further observe whether tilpotide itself will change the body's energy metabolism. The results showed that brown fat was indeed activated in the mice that received tilpotide.

Brown fat is different from white fat, which is mainly responsible for storing energy. One of its main functions is to consume energy and generate heat, so it is regarded as an important tissue in regulating energy consumption. The researchers pointed out that activation of brown fat is related to increased metabolic energy consumption and the production of related molecules, which makes the mechanism of action of tilpotide not only limited to reducing appetite.

Tilpotide itself is a drug that acts on both GIP and GLP-1 hormone receptors. In the past, the known weight loss effect was mainly related to reducing food intake. This study provides another possible direction, that is, in addition to affecting "how much you eat," drugs may also change "how much" energy your body consumes.

The research results have been published in the journal Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy. The research team emphasized that the current results come from mouse experiments and cannot be directly inferred that the same effects will occur in humans. There are differences in metabolic regulation, fat distribution, and drug response between humans and mice. Whether the actual effect of tilpotide on brown fat can be confirmed in humans in the future still requires more clinical research to verify.