MOTS-c

All ten cited papers are recent, published between 2023 and 2025. Two measured circulating MOTS-c in people without giving it: one in women with preeclampsia, the other in adults with and without obesity. The remaining eight are preclinical and gave or expressed the peptide in models of allergic asthma, lung ischaemia-reperfusion, lung injury after cardiopulmonary bypass, osteoarthritis, intervertebral disc degeneration, diabetic liver fibrosis and hepatitis B infection, plus a rat study that set it beside aerobic exercise.

Neither human study found a difference between the groups compared. Serum levels did not differ in preeclampsia and were similar in people with obesity and those of normal weight, with age and insulin resistance emerging as determinants. The preclinical papers reported less injury or degeneration by several mechanisms: reduced airway epithelial apoptosis via Nrf2 in asthma, activation of nuclear antioxidant defences through ROS-CK2A-MYH9 signalling after lung ischaemia-reperfusion, greater glycolysis and suppressed ferroptosis via AMPK-HIF-1α after bypass, slower cartilage degeneration via Nrf2 in osteoarthritis, and anti-degenerative effects associated with AMPK/SIRT1 signalling in disc-derived stem cells carried in a peptide hydrogel. In liver fibrosis experiments it lowered reactive oxygen species, raised Keap1-Nrf2 pathway expression and reduced TGF-β1/Smad expression. In hepatitis B it was linked to mitochondrial remodelling and antiviral activity. In rats, both MOTS-c and aerobic training increased heart weight and thickened myocardial fibres.

The picture is broad but thin. Each disease model rests on one study, most of them from 2025, and the pathways named differ from paper to paper, although Nrf2 appears in three. No cited study gave MOTS-c to people, and the preeclampsia authors called for large-scale research to clarify whether it has a role as a biomarker. Several papers present MOTS-c as a possible biomarker or therapeutic agent; those are hypotheses drawn from animal and cell work, not findings in patients.