Double muscles for life with just one injection of follistatin gene

[718si]

You can nag your dealer until he pins you on to the fender of his SUV, but you still won’t get any. We’re talking about the anabolic wonder stuff that researchers at Ohio State University are doing experiments with. A single injection will change you for the rest of your life into a hulk of the kind that Markus Ruehl [see photo below] would say: that much muscle just isn’t aesthetic.

The super steroid in question is not a hormone. It’s a common-cold virus that the researchers have made some adjustments to. Viruses invade cells and release their genes into them. Then the cell obeys the virus genes’ instructions, and makes the proteins according to the genes’ blueprint. The proteins formed are the building blocks for new viruses.

The researchers managed to get their viruses to ‘programme’ the muscle cells to make proteins that deactivated the myostatin protein. Myostatin is a protein that muscle cells make to prevent fitness centre owners from having to change jobs and become SUV salesmen.

Not that the researchers had something against fitness centre owners. They are looking for a cure for muscular dystrophy. In their study, which was published in the prestigious PNAS, they tested three myostatin inhibiting genes: the gene for growth and differentiation factor-associated serum protein-1 (GASP-1), follistatin-related gene (FLRG) and the gene for follistatin-344 (FS).

There are various kinds of follistatin and they all have different functions. As far as we know, only follistatin-344 is active in muscle tissue.

The mice in the experiment were given an injection when they were four weeks old. The photos below show their musculature two years later. AAV1 stands for the adenovirus that the researchers used. AAV1-GFP was the control group.

The injection with the gene for follistatin-344 was the most effective. This becomes clearer if you look at the figure below, which shows the weight of the mice two years after the injection.

But most beautiful of all is the graph below. This shows how the mice’s power developed over their lifespan. The mice in the control group – the green curve – get weaker towards the end of their life. But the mice that were injected with AAV1-FS – the red curve – just keep on getting stronger.

The researchers obtained the same success when they injected the viruses into mice that had congenital muscle disease. "The striking ability of FS to provide gross and functional long-term improvement to dystrophic muscles in aged animals warrants its consideration for clinical development to treat musculoskeletal diseases, including older DMD patients", they write.

Only a few years, and muscular diseases will be a thing of the past. And all fitness centres will go bust.

Sources:
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Mar 18;105(11):4318-22.

Double muscles for life with just one injection of follistatin gene

 

[desibaba]

Would this affect just your regular muscles or also other stuff that you DONT want growing? Like intestines, heart etc?

 

[RollinRock]

Thanks for posting, good article. Very interested to see additional studies on this to see where it goes.

 

[ErnieTaylor]

If it can be turned on....Can it be turned off?

 

[PainSeeker]

Thanks for the info. My mom has muscular dystrophy so I will definetely be looking into this some more.

 

[718si]

Would this affect just your regular muscles or also other stuff that you DONT want growing? Like intestines, heart etc?

I honestly haven't got a clue... Not an expert by any means, just posted an article I found.

I know there's a wealth of members here at ProMuscle who know quite a bit about these kinds of things... Maybe one or more of them could chime in?

 

[snrose07]

Would this affect just your regular muscles or also other stuff that you DONT want growing? Like intestines, heart etc?

From what little I have read, Myostatin is pretty much mostly found in skeletal muscle. So hopefully it would have no effect on smooth and myocardial muscle tissue.

 

[maldorf]

There are some effects on the heart it appears

From what little I have read, Myostatin is pretty much mostly found in skeletal muscle. So hopefully it would have no effect on smooth and myocardial muscle tissue.

this study shows that if you inhibit myostatin then there will be some hypertrophy of the heart muscle. Afterwards they saw a greater cardiac output and more responsiveness of the beta adrenergic cells (like epinephrine). I would worry about these effects on a healthy heart since you dont want too much hypertrophy there, but for someone that suffered a heart attack and has had cell death it might actually lead to some healing. Who knows. Good study here I found tonight.
Myostatin represses physiological hypertrophy of the heart and excitation

 

[krazylarry]

sweet, sign me up.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Looks like a Phase 1 clinical trial just started this year, so it will be a while before there is much human data.

Follistatin Gene Transfer to Patients With Becker Muscular Dystrophy and Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

But there is some data out in monkeys:

**broken link removed**

Also it should be understood that when you deliver a gene to a tissue (in this case, muscle), it can sometimes be difficult to get the tissue to take up the vector and completely express the gene. And there is a spatial component, so the gene will not likely be expressed in an area outside of the injection site. In the monkey study they made 3 injections along the length of the quad, and the opposite leg served as a control.

Also, the immune system has a tendency to reject the virus, and so these monkeys were also being treated with immunosuppressants.

That being said, this method really only works for the muscle that is being injected (would be helpful to bring up lagging body parts though!), and it doesn't last forever, although they did see benefits up to I think a year later in the monkeys.

Still very intriguing therapies, just wanted to throw out that food for thought before anyone thinks the holy grail of muscle building has been found.

 

[cell911]

Very interesting read

 

[Captnshitacular]

now we just need someone that carries real shit!! :headbang:

 

[718si]

now we just need someone that carries real shit!! :headbang:

LOL... Sadly this is way different than anything anyone here either had or claimed to have...

The products available to us today can temporarily suppress myostatin levels.

The stuff used in the study above actually used viruses to deliver a genetic "payload" to muscles, altering their function permanently.

The article is a little dated, so I am curious to see what comes of the current research.

 

[Macdaddy]

Looks like a Phase 1 clinical trial just started this year, so it will be a while before there is much human data.

Follistatin Gene Transfer to Patients With Becker Muscular Dystrophy and Sporadic Inclusion Body Myositis

But there is some data out in monkeys:

**broken link removed**

Also it should be understood that when you deliver a gene to a tissue (in this case, muscle), it can sometimes be difficult to get the tissue to take up the vector and completely express the gene. And there is a spatial component, so the gene will not likely be expressed in an area outside of the injection site. In the monkey study they made 3 injections along the length of the quad, and the opposite leg served as a control.

Also, the immune system has a tendency to reject the virus, and so these monkeys were also being treated with immunosuppressants.

That being said, this method really only works for the muscle that is being injected (would be helpful to bring up lagging body parts though!), and it doesn't last forever, although they did see benefits up to I think a year later in the monkeys.

Still very intriguing therapies, just wanted to throw out that food for thought before anyone thinks the holy grail of muscle building has been found.

Did they use the vector in this or just the peptide? If the vector only lasts a year and only seems to work in the muscle injected, then what would the peptide do?

 

[aardwolf]

as good as this sounds... it cant be safe. id wait a good 2/3 years to see what happens to the first lot. bit presumptuous to assume it will actually happen but seemingly its possible

 

[PHIL HERNON]

Well

I know many that have used it and the follistatin peptide works just as well.........ask some of our clients at ergopep.........this has been discussed over and over again on here........I am surprised that some do not know this

 

[718si]

I know many that have used it and the follistatin peptide works just as well.........ask some of our clients at ergopep.........this has been discussed over and over again on here........I am surprised that some do not know this

Can't wait to try it!

 

[Bio]

Like Phil said, this isn't new news by any means. This article was being passed around like a hot potato over a year ago! It's a good read for anybody that wasn't around then....Ergo covered all of this when Phil launched the company!!

 

[BOOMSHAKER]

I know many that have used it and the follistatin peptide works just as well.........ask some of our clients at ergopep.........this has been discussed over and over again on here........I am surprised that some do not know this

Phil does the follistatin peptide need to be used in conjunction with another product? Or is it just as good on it's own?

 

[Johnny Ringo]

Phil, Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the research on the USA made HMP show even better Results that the Folli Peptide?.. Which I used and def added some quality muscle to my frame.