Research
Hormonal
FGF21 promotes muscle atrophy by increasing mitophagy flux via the protein Bnip3, rather than through the ubiquitin-proteasome system (UPS).
This paper identifies Bnip3 and mitophagy (mitochondrial recycling) as the specific cellular mechanism FGF21 uses to break down muscle during starvation. Blocking this specific pathway, rather than just general protein breakdown, might be key to preserving muscle during stress.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Such important protection is due to the maintenance of protein synthesis rate in knockout muscles during fasting compared with a 70% reduction in control-fasted muscles (P < 0.01), together with a significant reduction of the mitophagy flux via the regulation of the mitochondrial protein Bnip3.
Why this rating
Robust mechanistic validation using knockout, overexpression, and specific protein inhibition (Bnip3).
Source
Fibroblast growth factor 21 controls mitophagy and muscle mass
Lynette J. Oost et al. · Journal of Cachexia Sarcopenia and Muscle · 2019
DOI 10.1002/jcsm.12409
mechanism_onlyCited 225×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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