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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/12/051208230252.htm  😮

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The thing that I have always wondered about these muscle growth treatments is how does it affect heart muscle and gastronomical muscles?  All the research and articles I have read just goes into details about skeletal muscles.  I mean, that would be the biggest side effect to worry about. 

Of course maybe the genes and whatnot that control skeletal muscle development is totally independent from heart and stomach muscles, cause I sure as heck ain't no bio-engieer scientist man.

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I have not had a chance to really study this, but I believe that, since voluntary and involuntary muscles are actually different types of cells, they require different chemicals to grow. What I'm more worried about are muscles that are neither voluntary nor involuntary. For example, the diaphragm, the muscle that controls the ability to breath, is an involuntary muscle. However, you can still control it. If that were affected by the lack of muscle inhibiting proteins, then you would slowly suffocate. Another issue is that you need to make sure that it only affects a certain part of the body. From the article, it sounds like you have to inject these chemicals directly into the muscle groups that are to be affected. If it spreads through the body, it could cause some sever disfiguration. A perfect example is that, in the face, there are muscles. While there are mostly tendons, like in the hands, if these chemicals spread through the body unchecked, then it is possible for the the muscles in the face to grow, stretching it out of proportion.

One thing that I noticed that the article did not mention was how it affects the other tissues throughout the body, bones, ligaments and tendons being my primary concern. They do not use the same growth factors as muscle (at least bones don't, I'm not sure about the rest) so it is doubtful that they would grow in response to the chemicals that are allowing the muscles to grow. While the bones aren't a problem until the muscles get to a certain size, the ligaments and tendons are a little more of a problem. The ligaments hold the bones together, so if the muscles grow in such a way that they push the bones into awkward angles, then the ligaments can tear and cause severe harm. The biggest problem, in my opinion, would be the tendons. They are cellularly different from muscle cells, so, again, I don't think that the same growth factors apply. If that is the case, then you will end up with muscles that are several times stronger and bigger than the once were, but the tendons would stay about the same. This means that the person who took these shots could, hypothetically, pull the tendons off of the bones that they are attached to.

On the lighter side, this is a great scientific achievement. This can possible cure muscular dystrophy as well as other diseases that waste away the skeletal muscular tissue. The only thing that worries me about this is the fact that there might be some unintended side effects that can lead to some serious problems. I seriously doubt that the the authorities would let this happen (but it probably will, one way or another), but I expect that it will, shortly after release to the public, become available to the anyone, regardless if they need it or not. Someone will, undoubtedly, sell to anyone who wants it. This would be interesting, but I still want to make sure that there are no negative effects from such a treatment, even if it were a matter of my living or dying (which, thankfully, is not the case).

This is almost completely speculation, so I don't know how much of what I said is true. I just went along with what I was able to reason out. Regardless of my opinion, I think that this is a highly interesting scientific development and shows that we are slowly gaining mastery over the biological sciences. On a different, but similar note, has anyone ever read the story Neodystrophin, by Myostatinus? If not, look for it on the net. I think that anyone who reads it will find it as interesting as this article. 😉

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