Can fat cells hear and obey?

It sounds far-fetched, but new research out of Kyoto University suggests otherwise. Researchers discovered that exposing human cells to sound waves can alter their behaviour, specifically, their gene expression.

Kumeta M, Otani M, Toyoda M, et al. Acoustic modulation of mechanosensitive genes and adipocyte differentiation. Communications Biology. 2025;8:595.

The most surprising target? Fat cells.

Here’s what the study found—and what experts think about the leap from petri dish to patient care.

How researchers got cells to ‘listen’

To study how sound affects cell behaviour, the researchers designed “a system to bathe cultured cells in acoustic waves,” they explained in a press release.

Your cells can hear. Kyoto University. April 17, 2025.

The team assembled a dish with laboratory-grown living cells, then placed a vibration transducer upside-down on a shelf, which sent sound signals to a mechanism attached to the dish. The researchers used an audio player and amplifier to play different frequencies and white noise. 

After 2 hours, 42 genes were expressed. After 24 hours, a total of 145 genes were expressed using RNA sequencing. The cells most affected? Adipocyte cells, or fat cells. These cells in particular “exhibited prominently high sound responses, and their differentiation was significantly suppressed by continuous or periodic acoustic stimulation.”

“Since sound is non-material, acoustic stimulation is a tool that is non-invasive, safe, and immediate, and will likely benefit medicine and healthcare," the researchers stated in the press release.

Your cells can hear. Kyoto University. April 17, 2025.

But what does this mean for you and your patients? 

Dropping beats to drop pounds?

Mir Ali, MD, general surgeon, bariatric surgeon, and Medical Director of MemorialCare Surgical Weight Loss Centre at Orange Coast Medical Centre in Fountain Valley, CA, finds the research interesting, noting that the findings show that cells may be responding to stimuli that we’re not even aware of.

Of course, there is a long way to go: “The effect was found and only confirmed on cultured cell-level. We do not have any data demonstrating the effect of sound in adipose tissue control,” the study’s corresponding author, Masahiro Kumeta, PhD, tells MDLinx. “If acoustic technique can be applied to modulate adipose tissue for clinical use, it provides a safe and remote method to treat obesity that benefits many people.”