Eating fewer calories is largely accepted as a way of improving health and weight loss, but a recently published study in Metabolism of nature Highlights a particular amino acid containing sulfur corrugated as a key element in weight loss. In the study “Cysteine exhaustion activates thermogenesis and weight loss and weight loss”, the researchers discovered that when participants in the study limit their calorie intake, resulted in reduced cysteine levels in white fat.
The biomedical researchers of Pennington Dr. Eric Ravussin and Dr. Krisztian Stadler contributed to the study in which they expressed cysteine and discovered that it caused the transition of white fat cells to brown fat cells, which are a more active form of fat cells that burn energy to produce heat and keep heat. When the researchers entirely limited cysteine to animal models, it led to high weight loss levels and increased fat burning and brown brown cells, further proving the importance of cysteine in metabolism.
“In addition to dramatic weight loss and increasing fat burning resulting from the removal of cysteine, amino acid is also a central element for the redox balance and redox pathways in biology,” said Dr. Stadler, who directs the Oxidist Biomedon. “These results indicate future weight management strategies that may not be based solely on reducing calorie intake.”
The article is based on results from tests related to both human participants and animal models. For people’s tests, the researchers examined tissue fat samples taken by participants in the test that had actively limited the intake of calories for one year. When examining tissue fat samples, they sought changes in the thousands of metabolites, which are formed while the compounds formed when the body breaks the food and saves energy. Exploring these metabolites has shown a reduced level of cysteine.
“The reverse translation of a human calorie test has identified a new player into energy metabolism,” said Dr. Ravussin, who holds the Douglas L. Gordon chair in diabetes and metabolism in Pennington Biomedical and supervises the human translation physiology workshop. “Systematic exhaustion of cysteine in mice causes weight loss with increased use of fat and brown of adipocytes.”
Tissue samples came from participants in the Calerie Clinical trial, which recruited healthy young and middle -aged men and women who were instructed to reduce calorie intake by an average of 14% over two years. With a decrease in cysteine, participants also had subsequent weight loss, improved muscle health and reduced inflammation.
In animal models, the researchers provided meals with reduced calories. This has led to a 40%reduction in body temperature, but regardless of cell stress, animal models did not damage the tissue, suggesting that protective systems could kick when cysteine is low.
Dr. Ravussin, Dr. Stadler and their colleagues have made a remarkable discovery that shows that cysteine regulates the transition from white to brown fat cells, opening new therapeutic pathways to treat obesity. I would like to congratulate this research team on revealing this important metabolic mechanism that could ultimately transform how we approach weight management interventions. ”
Dr. John Kirwan, Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical Research Center
Source:
Magazine report:
Lee, ah, et al. (2025). Cysteine exhaustion activates the thermogenesis of adipose tissue and weight loss. Metabolism of nature. Doi.org/10.1038/S42255-025-01297-8.
