Scientists from the Department of Pharmacology of the UGR, the Federico Olóriz Neurosciences Institute of the University of Granada, the Biosanitary Institute of Granada and the University of Qatar are working on this research. UGR professor Ahmad Agil heads these studies, which have been published in the journals Antioxidants and Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy.

The experiment, carried out in obese and diabetic adult rats of both sexes, has found that chronic administration of the melatonin drug (10 mg/kg body weight/day and for three months) prevents obesity to a greater extent than acute treatment and reduces visceral obesity by around 3%. It also ameliorates the muscle-fiber atrophy caused by obesity, the transformation of the muscle fiber type into a more oxidative and slower phenotype, and generates an increase in mitochondrial activity and content, which explains the reduction in weight gain in both female and male rats.

Researchers demonstrate the positive effect of melatonin in the prevention of obesity (medicalxpress.com)