Macrophage inhibitory cytokine 1 (MIC-1/GDF15) decreases food intake, body weight and improves glucose tolerance in mice on normal & obesogenic diets

Food intake and body weight are controlled by a variety of central and peripheral factors, but the exact mechanisms behindthese processes are still not fully understood. Here we show that that macrophage inhibitory cytokine-1 (MIC-1/GDF15),known to have anorexigenic effects particularly in cancer, provides protection against the development of obesity. Bothunder a normal chow diet and an obesogenic diet, the transgenic overexpression of MIC-1/GDF15 in mice leads todecreased body weight and fat mass. This lean phenotype was associated with decreased spontaneous but not fastinginducedfood intake, on a background of unaltered energy expenditure and reduced physical activity. Importantly, theoverexpression of MIC-1/GDF15 improved glucose tolerance, both under normal and high fat-fed conditions. Altogether,this work shows that the molecule MIC-1/GDF15 might be beneficial for the treatment of obesity as well as perturbations in glucose homeostasis