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davelifter
Guest
I have been intrigued by the whole subject of the myostatin gene. we've all seen the pictures of the Belgian Blue cattle and the myostatin mice where the myostatin genes were knocked out in vitro. And there is the German boy who has both myostatin genes (one each from both parents) missing.
The German boy has greater muscle size, decreased fat and increased strength. I believe in some ways he is already stronger then an average adult male.
I have several questions on the effect of the myostatin gene. As in the case of the cattle, mice and the German boy, are the muscles bigger because the muscle cells are just naturally bigger? Are the muscles bigger because there is a greater number of muscle cells? Or is it a combination of the two?
And what causes the natural decrease in fat and increase in strength?
Also, since the muscles do eventually stop growing, there must be some other mechanism that ultimately limits the growth.
They have also discovered a protein that effectively inhibits myostatin expression which they have developed into a drug now being tested. I guess this drug will inhibit the myostatin gene causing an increase in muscle mass.
My question regarding this drug is how is the increase in muscle mass brought about? Does the body start growing new muscle cells or do existing muscle cells split to form new cells? Would this drug be as effective at increasing muscle mass the same as if the myostatin genes were missing in the first place?
We all know that some people respond much better to weight training and/or steroids than others. Everyone talks about genetics. That's why we have the Lee Priests, Ronnie Colemans, Jay Cutlers, etc. So why do they respond so much better than others? Is there a gene for response to resistance training? Is there a gene that causes some (one's) muscles cells to utilize higher levels of testosterone more effectively? Or are there other factors involved that havn't been discovered yet? Is it possible that people like Priest, Coleman, Cutler, Ruhl already have one of the myostatin genes missing?
So, what would we see if we took someone like Cutler or Ruhl and added in the means to completely shutdown the myostatin gene? Is it possilbe that there could be as much as a doubling of their muscle cells? Could they increase their muscle mass by at least 100lbs?
Lots of questions. And I thought I would throw all this out to stimulate some discussion.
The German boy has greater muscle size, decreased fat and increased strength. I believe in some ways he is already stronger then an average adult male.
I have several questions on the effect of the myostatin gene. As in the case of the cattle, mice and the German boy, are the muscles bigger because the muscle cells are just naturally bigger? Are the muscles bigger because there is a greater number of muscle cells? Or is it a combination of the two?
And what causes the natural decrease in fat and increase in strength?
Also, since the muscles do eventually stop growing, there must be some other mechanism that ultimately limits the growth.
They have also discovered a protein that effectively inhibits myostatin expression which they have developed into a drug now being tested. I guess this drug will inhibit the myostatin gene causing an increase in muscle mass.
My question regarding this drug is how is the increase in muscle mass brought about? Does the body start growing new muscle cells or do existing muscle cells split to form new cells? Would this drug be as effective at increasing muscle mass the same as if the myostatin genes were missing in the first place?
We all know that some people respond much better to weight training and/or steroids than others. Everyone talks about genetics. That's why we have the Lee Priests, Ronnie Colemans, Jay Cutlers, etc. So why do they respond so much better than others? Is there a gene for response to resistance training? Is there a gene that causes some (one's) muscles cells to utilize higher levels of testosterone more effectively? Or are there other factors involved that havn't been discovered yet? Is it possible that people like Priest, Coleman, Cutler, Ruhl already have one of the myostatin genes missing?
So, what would we see if we took someone like Cutler or Ruhl and added in the means to completely shutdown the myostatin gene? Is it possilbe that there could be as much as a doubling of their muscle cells? Could they increase their muscle mass by at least 100lbs?
Lots of questions. And I thought I would throw all this out to stimulate some discussion.
