ReviewNature reviews. Endocrinology2021
GDF15: emerging biology and therapeutic applications for obesity and cardiometabolic disease.
Review in Nature reviews. Endocrinology, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 313 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
313 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 473 citations in OpenAlex.
- Growth Differentiation Factor 15 as a Link Between Obesity, Subclinical Atherosclerosis, and Heart Failure: A Systematic Review.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Pooled it
- Association of growth differentiation factor-15 with renal disease outcomes and all-cause death in type 1 and type 2 diabetic patients: a meta-analysis.BMC nephrology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Pitavastatin effect on enterocyte injury markers in an antiretroviral therapy-treated HIV population.AIDS (London, England) · 2026Trial
- High-Intensity Circuit Training Plus Sleep Health Intervention for Sleep Improvement: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Effects of exercise conducted prior to phenylketonuria-type meal on appetite, satiety hormones and energy expenditure: a randomised cross-over trial.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Trial
- Effects of a two-week modified ketogenic diet on circulating lipoprotein subclasses, GDF15, and FGF21 in obese adults.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Trial
- Association between inflammatory biomarkers and the cognitive response to a multidomain intervention: secondary longitudinal analyses from the MAPT study.GeroScience · 2025Trial
- Effects of Individualized Step Targets on Physical Activity in COPD. A Randomized Study.International journal of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease · 2025Trial
- Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) predicts relapse free and overall survival in unresected locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with chemoradiotherapy.Radiation oncology (London, England) · 2024Trial
- Effect of Acute Nutritional Ketosis on Circulating Levels of Growth Differentiation Factor 15: Findings from a Cross-Over Randomised Controlled Trial.Biomolecules · 2024Trial
- Activation of the cGAS-STING pathway contributes to cancer-related fatigue in a murine model of head and neck cancer.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Preoperative diabetes status, circulating GDF15, and weight loss after sleeve gastrectomy.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- Circulating factors induced by time-restricted eating drive metabolic reprogramming in endothelial cells.GeroScience · 2026Article
- A plasma proteomic atlas of the ocular disease phenome.Science China. Life sciences · 2026Article
- Exerkine-Mediated Inter-Organ Crosstalk and Translational Perspectives in Metabolic Diseases.Current obesity reports · 2026Review
- Plasma GDF-15 Levels Are Associated With HIV Reservoir Markers Independently of Inflammation in People With HIV on Antiretroviral Therapy.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2026Article
- Growth Differentiation Factor 15 and Histology-Defined Steatohepatitis and Fibrosis in Severe Obesity Undergoing Bariatric Surgery.Obesity surgery · 2026Observational
- Beneficial Hepatokines in MASLD/MASH: Therapeutic Potentials and Drug Delivery Challenges.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Metabolic adaptations of the tumor macroenvironment and their role in cancer progression and survivorship.Genes & development · 2026Review
253 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) is a member of the TGFβ superfamily whose expression is increased in response to cellular stress and disease as well as by metformin. Elevations in GDF15 reduce food intake and body mass in animal models through binding to glial cell-derived neurotrophic factor family receptor alpha-like (GFRAL) and the recruitment of the receptor tyrosine kinase RET in the hindbrain. This effect is largely independent of other appetite-regulating hormones (for example, leptin, ghrelin or glucagon-like peptide 1). Consistent with an important role for the GDF15-GFRAL signalling axis, some human genetic studies support an interrelationship with human obesity. Furthermore, findings in both mice and humans have shown that metformin and exercise increase circulating levels of GDF15. GDF15 might also exert anti-inflammatory effects through mechanisms that are not fully understood. These unique and distinct mechanisms for suppressing food intake and inflammation makes GDF15 an appealing candidate to treat many metabolic diseases, including obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, cardiovascular disease and cancer cachexia. Here, we review the mechanisms regulating GDF15 production and secretion, GDF15 signalling in different cell types, and how GDF15-targeted pharmaceutical approaches might be effective in the treatment of metabolic diseases.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.