This peptide was shown to decrease triglycerides accumulation in hypertrophic adipocytes in vitro through AQP7 mRNA and protein upregulation via PI3K signaling pathway, revealing that apelin-13 is a promising starting point to develop novel treatments against obesity and related health problems (Guo et al., 2014). Here, AQP7 is linked to obesity due to melanocortin 4 receptor deficiency.