Intranasal application of the melanocortin 4 receptor agonist MSH/ACTH(4-10) in humans causes lipolysis in white adipose tissue

What Was Tested

This randomized controlled trial paper looks at ACTH (Corticotropin).

In humans, direct access of MCR-4 agonists to the central nervous system can be achieved by a transnasal route, which leads to weight loss with chronic administration.

In the present study, the researchers aimed at investigating the effects of intranasally administered MC4-R agonist MSH/ACTH(4-10) on lipolysis and sympathetic nervous system activity in healthy humans.

Who Took Part

The age groups tagged for this paper are adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The researchers set it up as a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover study.

Random assignment meant chance, not the researchers, decided who got ACTH (Corticotropin) and who got the comparison, which limits bias.

Blinding on both sides kept the participants and researchers unaware of who received ACTH (Corticotropin).

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the ACTH (Corticotropin) group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between ACTH (Corticotropin) and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

Interstitial glycerol release was assessed by microdialysis in abdominal white adipose tissue (WAT) and in skeletal muscle (SM) of the forearm.

Local blood flow, systemic blood pressure, heart rate and muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) within the superficial peroneal nerve were recorded at rest and after nitroprusside infusion.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Abdominal Fat, Adipose Tissue, White, Adrenocorticotropic Hormone, Blood Pressure, Energy Metabolism, Glycerol and Heart Rate.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of ACTH (Corticotropin).

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2012 (International journal of obesity (2005)), a journal based in England.

More context: the ACTH (Corticotropin) compound page, all human trials.