Breakthrough Myostatin-Inhibiting Mechanism Offers the Key to Transcending Genetic Muscle-Gain Limitations
posted on 07-28-2008
Sometimes, a genetically encoded trait can outlive its usefulness. Such is the case with a specific genetic marker that controls myostatin production, the process by which muscle mass increase is curbed and limited in humans. Two million years ago, our human ancestors lived primarily in trees. For this distant forebear, being light and lithe, small and quick, conferred a distinct advantage in terms of foraging for food and fleeing enemies. Those proto-humans who possessed a specific genetic limitation that prevented extraordinary gains of muscle mass were most ideally suited to their environment and place in the food chain.
Now, let's fast forward two million years. Today, you're more likely to chop a tree down and haul it away than you are to climb it. Humans are at the top of the food chain to stay, and big and strong is definitely better. And yet, virtually every one of us still carries that ancient marker, a bodily disposition to limit muscle mass gains that exceed preset hereditary limits. This process is governed by a genetic protein called myostatin. The effects of muscle-limiting myostatin effect different people to different degrees. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for instance, is an excellent example of someone with reduced genetic resistance to muscle growth. But everyone is subject to myostatin's muscle regulatory effects to some degree.
Until now.
It should come as no surprise to discover that medical researchers have been striving to isolate a mechanism that would inhibit the production of myostatin in humans. Their urgency has been spurred by the widely held belief that myostatin inhibition represents by far the most powerful strategy for promoting dramatic muscular gains (even more powerful than anabolic steroids or growth hormone). Now it appears that this search may be over.
In recent months, a uniquely powerful biologically active agent developed by Celldyne BioPharma and tradenamed Folstaxan™ (
www.folstaxan.com) has emerged as the first and only product of its kind possessed with the potential to legitimately reduce serum myostatin levels and thereby open the doors to virtually unlimited muscle growth. This agent is produced exclusively by Celldyne and has been incorporated into the first revolutionary myostatin-inhibiting technology to contain biologically active follistatin. Before we get to the extraordinary implications of this scientific breakthrough (and the recent clinical study which validated it) let's take a closer look at the science behind Folstaxan™.
Myostatin is the bodybuilder's worst enemy; Folstaxan™ may be your best weapon to defeat it
First, let's come to an understanding about myostatin. Myostatin is a genetic protein that exists to establish a muscle-building "limit" in the body. It performs this function in humans and many other vertebrate animals as well. Animal species that produce no myostatin (like Piedmontese cattle, notable for their "double muscle factor," and Belgian blue bulls) appear to suffer no noticeable drawbacks. They're simply bigger and stronger. For years, scientists in Germany have been monitoring a German youth born without the capacity for myostatin production. He seems perfectly healthy, happy, and extremely well-muscled.
Belgian Blue Bull provides an extreme example of musculature that is achieved in a low myostatin environment.
Myostatin, then, can be defined by its disadvantages. It's what stands between you and your ideal physique. Until now, there wasn't much you could do about your myostatin problem.
Then scientists began investigating a single chain polypeptide normally produced by pituitary, ovary, and decidual cells of the endometrium. This peptide, called follistatin, is necessary for healthy growth and development in the placenta and fetal membranes. It is also a very powerful inhibitor of myostatin. In fact, so much so that a number of pharmaceutical companies have moved to develop drugs that deliver follistatin to treat disease states. Fortunately for the bodybulding and sports world, Follistatin is present in significant amounts in fertilized chicken eggs.
Here's where the story gets even more interesting. Researchers at Celldyne Biopharma, an innovative pharmaceutical research company in Texas that specializes in myostatin related therapies, were able to produce a biologically-active fertile egg powder that maintained high levels of active follistatin (a first in the industry). Subsequent extensive testing and refinement yielded an orally ingested source of naturally occurring follistatin from fertile eggs that was actually absorbed and pharmaco-kinetically active in the human model. The result was Folstaxan™, the first generation of follistatin-rich fertile egg yolk powder properly processed to preserve active follistatin.
The visionary researchers at Celldyne Biopharma had isolated and manufactured an entirely new and unprecedented technology—a naturally derived compound that would function as a modulator and antagonist to serum myostatin levels in the body. They were tantalizingly close to a breakthrough with the potential to ramp up muscle growth through an entirely new mechanism of action. But would it work? The scene was set for a clinical test that would galvanize the supplement industry worldwide and establish the groundwork for a new category of mass-building supplementation.
Clinical study breakthrough: Folstaxan™ reduced myostatin production by 33% with a single dose
The compound Folstaxan™ was recently the subject of a groundbreaking study1 published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition. In the study, researchers administered an oral dose of Folstaxan™ after an initial blood draw. Serum follistatin levels were qualitatively and quantitatively measured as an indicator of absorption. In addition, serum myostatin levels were qualitatively and quantitatively measured as an indicator of hormonal influence. Knowing that as little as a 20% reduction in serum myostatin could result in a very significant increase in muscle mass, researchers were hoping for at least a 20% decrease.
The results showed a predicted zero level of follistatin at baseline with a myostatin level of 46pg/ml. In the following 12 hours after Folstaxan™ dosing, serum follistatin measured 57.1pg/ml with a decline of myostatin to 34pg/ml. Twenty-four hours after the initial dosing, follistatin levels began to predictably drop from the time of initial dosing to 11.4pg/ml (a healthy sign of rapid natural clearance from the body). Yet the influence of the follistatin remained as myostatin continued to decline slightly with a 24-hour level of 31pg/ml. That's more than a 33% decrease. These results clearly indicated that Folstaxan™, when orally ingested in this way, increased follistatin while significantly reducing myostatin in the human model.
The first and only natural myostatin-inhibiting technology to contain biologically active follistatin
Marketed exclusively by Celldyne, Folstaxan™ contains the same active ingredient used in the study cited above and is produced through a proprietary and highly complex process that maintains biological activity. Celldyne currently has numerous patents pending for this revolutionary new compound and thus, genuine biologically-active Folstaxan will only be available through them when it hits the market later this year.
It is important to recognize that Folstaxan™ represents an entirely new technology and is not to be confused with the first generation of purported myostatin inhibitors such as the botanical Cystoseira Canariensis. These were at best very weak inhibitors of myostatin and were lacking in any compelling scientific support for real world results. In contrast, Folstaxan™ has already shown in a human study (with more such studies soon to be published) that it has a truly remarkable capacity for decreasing serum myostatin levels to the range necessary to promote dramatic muscular growth.
The introduction of Folstaxan™ can be seen as the first major success in a decades-long medical research effort to overcome the mass-building limitations ingrained in us by genetics. By its very nature, this technology is an alternative and synergistic approach to mass gain that can be combined with well-established methods of supplementation (proteins, creatines, fat burners). Although more research is warranted (and ongoing), clearly the ramifications of such a technology should be very exciting to any athlete who has ever been frustrated by genetic muscle-building limitations.
As such, it is clearly a scientific breakthrough of historic proportions. Folstaxan™ represents the most powerful natural inhibitor of myostatin known to science today. Consequently, Folstaxan™ is that rarest of phenomena: an entirely original and unique mass-building technology with the potential to unleash unprecedented anabolism and muscle growth.
1 Colker C, Randomized blind comparison of follistatin in standard store-bought unfertilized chicken eggs verses standard store-bought fertile eggs. Reviewed and accepted for poster presentation at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the American College of Nutrition and abstract publication in Journal of the American College of Nutrition, Volume 25, No.5, Abstract 65; October 2006.
Folstaxan: Myostatin Antagonist (Bodybuilding Future)
08-16-2008, 12:52 PM
an entirely original and unique mass-building technology
