Study record
Systemic MOTS-c levels are increased in adults with obesity in association with metabolic dysregulation and remain unchanged after weight loss
Yoon SH, Yuan F, Zhu X et al. · J Clin Transl Endocrinol · 2026
What this study reported
Found higher circulating MOTS-c in adults with obesity than in lean adults, with BMI and HOMA-IR each independently predicting higher levels and a nonlinear relationship with HOMA-IR. Reported that adipose tissue MOTS-c expression did not differ between groups and did not correlate with circulating MOTS-c. Measured no change in circulating MOTS-c 6 months after bariatric surgery despite lower BMI in the 10 participants followed.
Limitations
Small exploratory sample with only 10 participants followed after surgery, cross-sectional group comparison, adipose tissue controls drawn from kidney donors rather than the lean comparison group, and no sex-stratified analysis reported.
Study record
| Study model | Human observational |
|---|---|
| Substance studied | Endogenous MOTS-c measuredNaturally occurring MOTS-c was measured; nothing was given. |
| Species | human |
| System studied | Lean adult controls and adults with obesity scheduled for bariatric surgery; adipose tissue from lean kidney donors and participants with obesity |
| Population | adults with obesity scheduled for bariatric surgery and lean adult controls |
| Design | Cross-sectional comparison with a small longitudinal post-surgical follow-up |
| Sample size as reported | 22 lean controls and 32 participants with obesity; 10 followed through bariatric surgery; adipose tissue from 6 lean kidney donors and 14 subjects with obesity |
| Control group | lean adult controls and lean kidney donors for adipose tissue |
| Route (data field only) | Not reported |
| Endpoints measured | circulating MOTS-c concentration; BMI; HOMA-IR; inflammatory markers; adipose tissue MOTS-c expression |
| Pathways measured | Insulin & glucose handling · Inflammation |
| Research areas | Metabolic · Mitochondrial biology |
| Evidence tier | B — Other human study |
| Publication types | Journal Article |
Appraisal
Each dimension is recorded separately and never combined into a single score. A study can be well controlled and still tell you little about people.
- Relevance to MOTS-c
- Direct
- Model applicability
- Human
- Sample size
- Small
- Controls
- Limited
- Outcome validity
- Validated biomarker
- Support for its own conclusion
- Moderate
Provenance
- Bibliographic fields retrieved from PubMed E-utilities efetch (title, journal, date, authors, DOI) on 2026-11-11.
- Annotated from the published abstract.
- Editorial review: approved (2026-11-11).
- Classification follows the site methodology; the record describes the study, not what MOTS-c does in people.