Santos Zas, IcíaGurriarán Rodríguez, UxíaCid Díaz, TaniaLeal López, SaúlCasanueva Freijo, FelipePazos Randulfe, YolandaPérez Camiña, Jesús2026-04-202026-04-202026-03-05Santos-Zas, I., Gurriaran-Rodriguez, U., Cid-Diaz, T., Leal-López, S., Casanueva, F., Pazos-Randulfe, Y., & P. Camiña, J. (2026) Obestatin: canonical and unexpected functions. Reviews in Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11154-026-10021-0https://hdl.handle.net/10347/46825The functions of appetite-regulating hormones have been studied for decades with the aim of finding a solution to the problem of obesity. Among these molecules, a small peptide called obestatin has emerged as an anorexigenic hormone, with an antagonistic effect to the hunger hormone ghrelin. After years of controversy regarding its function in food intake and the establishment of its receptor, GPR39, obestatin is currently being proposed as a powerful therapeutic candidate for pathologies associated with skeletal muscle. Several studies have demonstrated its key role as a regulatory peptide in myogenesis, thereby increasing regeneration in acute muscle damage. Obestatin promotes vascularization and reduces fibrosis in regenerated tissue, while also increasing muscle strength in muscle atrophy pathologies associated with glucocorticoid treatment and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. This review describes the main mechanisms and signaling pathways regulated by the obestatin peptide in muscle pathology.engThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Attribution 4.0 Internationalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ObestatinGPR39Skeletal muscleAtrophyWasting musclejournal article10.1007/s11154-026-10021-01573-2606open access