Oxyntomodulin

Where it comes from

Made in

L cells of the lower gut

Sent out by

After a meal, in proportion to its size; rises greatly after gastric bypass

Acts on

• Hypothalamus
• Pancreas
• Liver

What it does

• Reduces appetite and food intake ¹
• Raises energy expenditure ¹
• Lowers glucose through insulin release

In medicine

• No medicine is oxyntomodulin itself; infusions cut food intake and weight in short randomised trials in overweight volunteers ¹
• Its surge after bariatric surgery is part of why appetite falls afterwards, and its blood level tracks how far that appetite falls ²

Beyond the body’s own use

• It is the template for the GLP-1/glucagon dual agonists: mazdutide took off 16.7% of body weight in a Chinese phase 3 trial ³ and is approved there for weight management, survodutide is in phase 3 for obesity and fatty liver disease, and cotadutide was dropped
• Infused into volunteers four days running it both cut energy intake and raised energy expenditure, which is the finding the whole dual-agonist idea rests on ¹
• Oxyntomodulin itself lasts minutes in blood, so it is given only by infusion in a study; the medicines built from it are engineered to last a week