Hormonal
Myostatin acts as a central negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass by inhibiting myoblast proliferation, increasing ubiquitin-proteasomal activity, and downregulating the IGF-Akt pathway.
Myostatin is a key biological brake on muscle growth. While you cannot directly control myostatin levels through simple lifestyle changes, understanding its role explains why muscle loss occurs in disease, aging, and disuse. Interventions that inhibit myostatin (currently experimental in humans) show potential for treating muscle-wasting diseases, but natural resistance training may chronically lower basal myostatin expression to facilitate hypertrophy.
Myostatin is capable of inducing muscle atrophy via its inhibition of myoblast proliferation, increasing ubiquitin-proteasomal activity and downregulating activity of the IGF–Akt pathway.
Why this rating
Based on a comprehensive review of multiple animal models (mice, cattle, dogs, rats) and human studies, though causality in humans is noted as complex.
Source
The central role of myostatin in skeletal muscle and whole body homeostasis
Bradley Elliott et al. · Acta Physiologica · 2012
DOI 10.1111/j.1748-1716.2012.02423.x
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- Resistance training induces an acute increase in myostatin expression followed by a chronic adaptive decrease in basal levels, facilitating hypertrophy.Moderate
- Myostatin inhibition has potential therapeutic applications for Western diseases like COPD, type II diabetes, and obesity, but may have non-traditional side effects.Moderate
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