Hormonal
Myostatin acts as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass by inhibiting protein synthesis and promoting degradation; blocking myostatin signaling increases muscle mass in animal models but has failed to show clinical efficacy in elevating muscle strength in human muscular dystrophy trials.
While myostatin is a key regulator of muscle size, simply targeting it (e.g., via drugs or genetic mutation) increases mass but has not reliably improved strength in human clinical trials. Current research suggests targeting myostatin alone is insufficient for treating muscle wasting in humans, and other factors like activin A may play larger roles in primates.
Functionally, myostatin is a negative regulator of muscle growth thereby leading to inhibition of myogenesis... Animals blocking myostatin activity with substance show significantly increased muscle mass... In humans, individuals with mutations in both copies of the myostatin gene showed significantly increased muscle mass and muscle strength... However, so far none of these treatments have proven to be clinically sufficient... a myostatin antibody, MYO-029/stamulumab, was tested in broad muscle dystrophic models... but failed to show clinical efficacy in elevating muscle strength.
Why this rating
Strong mechanistic evidence in animals and genetic cases, but weak/failed clinical trial evidence in humans for strength outcomes.
Source
Role of Myokines in Regulating Skeletal Muscle Mass and Function
Jong Han Lee et al. · Frontiers in Physiology · 2019
DOI 10.3389/fphys.2019.00042
More from this paper
- IL-6 acts as a myokine with dual roles: it enhances glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity during exercise, but chronic overproduction (e.g., in Duchenne muscular dystrophy) contributes to muscle degeneration and inflammation.Good
- Irisin, a myokine derived from FNDC5, promotes skeletal muscle hypertrophy and attenuates denervation-induced atrophy by activating IL-6 signaling and satellite cell elevation, although its role in human pathology remains under investigation.Moderate
- Decorin is a myokine that directly binds to and inactivates myostatin, thereby promoting muscle growth by inhibiting myostatin's anti-myogenic effects and increasing pro-myogenic factors like Mighty and Myod1.Moderate
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