Exercise hormone can fight obesity

Irisin, a polypeptide hormone found in both humans and mice is a membrane protein in muscle cells that breaks down during exercise and secreted as a hormone, said researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School in the US.

The hormone which is named after Iris, the messenger of the gods in Greek mythology acts as a chemical messenger and induces ordinary “white” fat cells to convert into “brown fat,” a type of adipose tissue that helps regulate body temperature, while burning a tremendous amount of energy in the process.

After injecting irisin into mice, researchers found that the hormone switched on genes that convert white fat into “good” brown fat which burns off more excess calories than does exercise alone, says the report published in the journal Nature...