Research

Hormonal

Disruption of cardiolipin synthesis in thermogenic fat leads to insulin resistance and reduced metabolic flexibility through a mechanism involving ER stress factor CHOP-10.

This finding highlights that brown fat health is not just about burning calories but also about signaling. Disrupting this signaling (via lack of cardiolipin) can lead to insulin resistance. This suggests that preserving brown fat function through lifestyle factors like cold exposure might help maintain insulin sensitivity.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Cardiolipin depletion in brown and beige fat abolishes adipose thermogenesis and glucose uptake, which renders animals insulin resistant... CL depletion globally decreased oxidative phosphorylation and other mitochondrial gene programs... mediated through the ER stress response factor, CHOP-10.
Elahu G. Sustarsic et al. · Cell Metabolism · 2018

Why this rating

Clear mechanistic pathway identified in mouse models with supporting human genetic data.

Source

Cardiolipin Synthesis in Brown and Beige Fat Mitochondria Is Essential for Systemic Energy Homeostasis

Elahu G. Sustarsic et al. · Cell Metabolism · 2018

DOI 10.1016/j.cmet.2018.05.003

mechanism_onlyCited 169×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

This is one finding among thousands. Every one is graded and traced to its source, so you can see what the evidence actually supports. Browse the research →