Yuan Zhang, Lijun Yang, Yousong Ding
Obesity, one of the most common metabolic disorders, has become a worldwide disease that poses substantial health and economic burdens to individuals and society. Recently, “browning” of human white adipose tissue has become an attractive therapeutic strategy for the management of obesity and obesity-related metabolic diseases as the fat-burning brown-like beige adipose tissue enhances whole-body energy metabolism. Irisin, a hormone secreted by skeletal muscle and other organs after exercise and cold exposure, gives rise to keen interest because of its promising therapeutic potential for the browning of white adipocytes. This review will cover recent major progresses in the “anti-obesity” research of irisin with an emphasis on the browning effect of irisin in human. We further discuss emerging questions and new directions in the irisin research.