The plant hormone, 6-benzylaminopurine, ameliorates obesity in male and female mice while on a high-fat diet.
Lieu CV, Zhang CX, Loganathan N, French L, Krunic A
Plant Signaling
A plant growth hormone you may have used to propagate cuttings or boost flowering in your garden turns out to trigger fat-burning and appetite suppression in mammals—raising the possibility that compounds already widely used in horticulture may have untapped medical benefits.
Researchers tested a plant hormone called BAP—the same chemical gardeners use to encourage plants to sprout and branch—on obese mice and found it helped them lose weight. It worked by making the mice less hungry, helping their bodies burn fat more efficiently, and improving blood sugar control. The team traced the effect to a specific chain of chemical signals in cells, suggesting BAP works in a completely different way from current weight-loss drugs.
Key Findings
Orally administered BAP induced significant weight loss in both male and female diet-induced obese mice through sex-specific mechanisms including appetite suppression and fat tissue remodeling.
BAP improved multiple metabolic markers including glucose tolerance, fasting blood glucose, and liver health, while promoting the conversion of energy-storing white fat into calorie-burning brown fat.
RNA sequencing revealed BAP inhibits the EGFR/ErbB2 and MEK/ERK/EGR1 signaling pathways, and MEK/ERK inhibition was shown to drive appetite-suppressing gene changes and fat-burning protein (UCP1) induction across multiple cell types.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A common plant hormone used in gardening and agriculture—6-benzylaminopurine (BAP)—was found to cause significant weight loss in obese mice by suppressing appetite, breaking down fat, and improving metabolism, suggesting it could become a new obesity treatment for humans.
Abstract Preview
Obesity is a global health crisis. Currently available treatments, while effective, show several undesirable side effects that hinder their long-term use. Herein, we investigated the anti-obesity p...
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