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New 'Mighty Mouse' Formula Found

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on Sat Dec 10, 2005 03:34 PM
from the beefy-rodent-overlord dept.
Biotech Science
mystyc writes to tell us that scientists at Johns Hopkins have improved upon their original "mighty mice" discovery. Teamed with the biotech firm MetaMorphix and pharmaceutical company Wyeth, they have found a new agent that interacts with the muscle-limiting protein myostatin that was able to trigger a 60% increase in muscle size after just two weekly injections.
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New 'Mighty Mouse' Formula Found 50 Comments More /

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  • Gotta love the scroll wheel. (Score:5, Funny)

    by PopeOptimusPrime (875888) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:36PM (#14229702)
    Please move this to the Apple section :P

  • I dunno ... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ScrewMaster (602015) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:36PM (#14229704)
    think I'll wait 'til they work the bugs out before I go for my injections.

    • No miracle pill here (Score:5, Informative)

      by Valdrax (32670) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:29PM (#14229987)
      Well the number one through three issues I can think of is whether or not it increases tendon and ligament strength. I'm pretty sure if all it does is block myostatin that it doesn't do either. If not, then you run the risk of having muscles way too strong for your joints.

      Of course you run this same risk if you leap right into weight lifting with low-rep, heavy-weight work without spending the time to strengthen these joints with high-rep, low-weight work first.

      On the other hand, since this almost certainly does nothing for neuromuscular response, you'll also end up with a lot of large but mostly useless muscle mass that's untappable for you.

      In other words, don't expect this to substitute for working out for anyone who's not trying to stave off the decay of their existing muscles.

      • Re:No miracle pill here (Score:4, Interesting)

        by MikeURL (890801) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:43PM (#14230046) Journal
        You're partially right. You're assuming that someone taking this drug would try to move mountains in the gym. If a person simply wanted to increase their lean body mass and did not also try to push their limit strength up then this could work rather well. Some people have wondered out loud if the elite bodybuilders have some form of defect in this gene that makes them baloon up so easily. I don't know if there is anything to that but anecdotal reports suggest that these guys often, lb for lb, move much less weight than considerably smaller powerlifers.
          • In response to your posting, bodybuilders have NOT been found to have less myostatin than non-weightlifters. Not ONE scientific report will back up your statement. In fact, in most bodybuilders, myostatin has been working just fine at keeping them from becoming absolutely huge. No bodybuilder just looks at weights and becomes muscular. Unlike these mice, bodybuilders train on a daily basis. These mice gained muscle mass (and muscle cells!) without any additional exercise! As for your inference that the chi
      • Who says people want to increase muscle mass in order to be strong? I suspect a lot of guys would like to have more muscle mass just because they think it would look good.
      • We've been helping them along for years, through our use of baited traps that serve only to provide pressure for mice to evolve increased intelligence and manual dexterity in order to remove the cheese without springing the trap. I'd say it's only a matter of time before they discover fire and split the atom.
  • Here I Come to Save the Day!!

    • Re:Mighty Mouse Theme (Score:5, Funny)

      by Class Act Dynamo (802223) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:20PM (#14229947) Homepage
      Dear Mr. Mouse,

      I am writing in regards to your inquiry about compensation for your recent affliction of horrible cancers. I am afraid we must reject any request for compensation. If you will refer back to the release you signed before submitting to our experiments, you will find that you stated that you understood all the risks and possible side effects of the injection and would not hold Johns Hopkins responsible for any adverse effects. In summary, I am sorry about your sickness; and I hope you can see that while this injection will eventually bring about your untimely death, you were able to dispense some mouse justice prior to your illness.

      Sincerely yours,

      G. Figley Whitesides
      Attorney at Law

  • Investigation... (Score:4, Funny)

    by daddyrief (910385) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:36PM (#14229710) Homepage
    Congress better look into this. If baseball players can't do this, mice shouldn't be able to either.

  • MLB (Score:2, Funny)

    by whoop (194)
    Wonder how many baseball players read slashdot?

    • Re:MLB (Score:5, Funny)

      by IdleTime (561841) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:41PM (#14229745) Journal
      They can read???

    • I wonder if the governor of California reads slashdot.

      And then there's all the spam - "Proven formula. mix this new M1GHT7 M0U53 formula with V14GR4 and really amaze her! 60% larger."

      • . . . I am a baseball player and I take persenal ofense at this slur on us. just cause we can run and not fall other and dont wear glas's does not meen we dont have the intelligense to read and learn and become an actif member of the geek crowd.[br][br]Your just another hater. keep reading them books and see how many women you can get buzy with.

  • new market? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by mr_stinky_britches (926212) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:41PM (#14229742) Homepage Journal
    So will this only be used for already sick people, or are we going to have to test for it in sports in the next decade?

  • What happened to the heart? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BerntB (584621) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:42PM (#14229752)
    Increased heart size is dangerous, right? This increase all muscles, so...

    What are the effects on the heart?

    • but.. but... it worked for the Grinch!
    • It only affects striated muscle. Heart muscle is smooth and so is unaffected.

      • Wrong (Score:5, Informative)

        by Seoulstriker (748895) on Saturday December 10 2005, @05:27PM (#14230228)
        Heart muscle is also striated. However, the cardiac myocytes are not multi-nucleated and the pattern is more zig-zaggy. Nevertheless, if the cardiac myocytes were not striated, the muscle just wouldn't have enough force to contract and propel blood through the chambers and the peripheral vasculature.

        I'm still waiting on the published research...
    • Ventricular Hypertrophy - in a sedentary person - is an indication of the (usually left) vetricle working too hard to overcome narrowed atreries, and increasing its mass for that reason only.

      Many athletes have "enlarged" hearts - simply because the heart is working harder for the right reasons. For years world class athletes were being denied decent health insurance rates, because a chest x-ray would show a larger than normal heart, and MDs knew of only one reason for it - the bad one. It was in large par

  • Give some to the depressed hamsters? (Score:5, Funny)

    by pedantic bore (740196) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:47PM (#14229780)
    Wait, let me patent that idea, first.

  • Keeping Score (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nerdposeur (910128) on Saturday December 10 2005, @03:49PM (#14229791) Journal
    So, for the obligatory recap, we're looking forward to: Mice that are really strong, don't age (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/ 18/2133229&tid=214&tid=14 [slashdot.org]), can regrow damaged limbs (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/09/ 01/0035245&tid=99&tid=14 [slashdot.org]), and have no fear (http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/ 18/0644240&tid=191&tid=14 [slashdot.org]).

    I, for one, am investing in explosive mousetraps.

  • Abstract / free full paper link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Frangible (881728) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:07PM (#14229885)
    ABSTRACT: Myostatin is a secreted protein that normally functions as a negative regulator of muscle growth. Agents capable of blocking the myostatin signaling pathway could have important applications for treating human muscle degenerative diseases as well as for enhancing livestock production. Here we describe a potent myostatin inhibitor, a soluble form of the activin type IIB receptor (ACVR2B), which can cause dramatic increases in muscle mass (up to 60% in 2 weeks) when injected into wild-type mice. Furthermore, we show that the effect of the soluble receptor is attenuated but not eliminated in Mstn(-/-) mice, suggesting that at least one other ligand in addition to myostatin normally functions to limit muscle growth. Finally, we provide genetic evidence that these ligands signal through both activin type II receptors, ACVR2 and ACVR2B, to regulate muscle growth in vivo.

    Full journal article (PDF) [pnas.org]

  • normal people (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rayde (738949) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:17PM (#14229935) Homepage
    so my question is this... if something like this is proven to be safe in humans, allowing large increases in muscle growth, will it ever be available to the public? if not... why not?

    Steroids have long been banned in sports because they can have catastrauphic side-effects, and pro atheletes are often seen as role models. however, if a product came out that could dramatically strengthen humans, without nasty side-effects, for what reason shouldn't the average person be able to go out and in two weeks have significantly larger muscles? should it be regulated? and if so, why?

    there are ethical implications here... the haves vs. the have-nots... those who can afford to increase their muscle mass using the products would perhaps become a superior segment of the human race. imagine a scenario where western countries and their super-citizens gain a distinct physical advantage over the less wealthy countries.

    yet think of the productivity gains that would be possible in manufacturing, construction, or other physically intensive occupations. strengthening your workers could bring huge advantages.

    it's a very interesting issue, i'm sure one that we'll see popping up again in the future.

    • AFAIK, the FDA does not approve drugs that improve regular people, just drugs that can fix problems already there. Many college students take ritalin to allow them to focus with low side-effects but they still cannot get it without a prescription.
    • You need to recheck again your facts. The reason steroids are banned is not because they have side effects, ask your doctor and he will tell you that all medicines (including) drugs have side effects. So why steroids in particular are illegal and (i.e.) viagra is not? 1) The soviets block was using it and winning medals, so it was easier to call it immoral and unfair using steroids. 2) Nixon started the war on drugs, adding steroids to the list was the next natural thing to do, nowadays 'roids are a multi-m
  • Does it work on that all important muscle....the 3rd leg?
  • I, for one, hope that they can use this to great effect to feed us cow-eating folk. Mmm, ultra-large spare ribs.
    • For a preview of what this will look like, look at the breed of cattle with mutant myostatin gene, the Belgian Blue. They have enormous muscles, but they are not popular because the fetus cows grow too big for natural birth, so all of them have to be born by caesarean section. An injectable myostatin blocker avoids this problem, so I predict this will soon become very important in meat farming.
      • ... the fetus cows grow too big for natural birth, so all of them have to be born by caesarean section. An injectable myostatin blocker avoids this problem...

        Myostatin is what limits muscle growth, so if having smaller muscles avoids the birth problem you'd want to inject myostatin, not a blocker.
         

  • I know it's funny... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Cherita Chen (936355) on Saturday December 10 2005, @04:52PM (#14230084) Homepage
    I know the title of this article is kind of funny, and there are a lot of funny posts on this thread, however; if you are interested in learning a little more about this, and wish to see a different perspective on the issue (such as practical appliactions, etc...) Check out the following link.

    http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6065 [newscientist.com]

    Seeing that the source for the main article is currently ./'d, you should have time to have a gander :-)

  • The end of brawn above brains? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Julian Morrison (5575) on Saturday December 10 2005, @08:03PM (#14230935)
    Imagine. You've spent most of your life working to perfect your body. You've suffered boredom, pain and injuries. For this, you get all the good girls, and the admiration of your peers. Then some pencil-neck geek injects himself with myostatin blocker, and in a month he's beating you at arm-wrestling. The dungeons and dragons club actually do look like steel-thewed barbarians, if barbarians had acne.

    Oh, the dilution of kudos! How the mighty are fallen...

  • A better moose trap (Score:3, Funny)

    by Belseth (835595) on Saturday December 10 2005, @11:32PM (#14231608)
    Damn, that explains why the mouse trap looks like a pretzel. Time to break out the bear traps and a wheel of cheese.

  • Seriously (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Chris Johnson (580) on Sunday December 11 2005, @12:31AM (#14231813) Homepage
    I have a friend with two children doomed to die of muscular dystrophy, so I have to wonder if this might be a relevant breakthrough in that area...

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