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Follistatin gene therapy to combat osteoarthritis and obesity

This new approach doubled muscle mass in mice, reduced its fat

16-May-2020

Key points from article :

Gene therapy helped build significant muscle mass quickly, reduced severity of osteoarthritis (OA).

This is in mice, which also staved off obesity even on high-fat diet.

Muscle mass of these “super mice” more than doubled, their strength nearly doubled too.

Follistatin (FST) may enhance muscle formation while inhibiting inflammation.

AAV9 delivery of FST also mitigates knee OA caused by a high-fat diet in mice.

Regardless of diet, mice receiving FST gene therapy were protected from post-traumatic OA.

As well as bone remodeling induced by joint injury.

FST gene therapy may provide a multifactorial therapeutic approach.

Specifically for injury-induced OA and metabolic inflammation in obesity.

Researchers from Washington University, published in Science Advances.

Mentioned in this article:

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Science Advances

Journal that publishes original research and reviews in all disciplines of science

Washington University in St. Louis

Private multidisciplinary research university.

Topics mentioned on this page:
Gene Therapy, Musculoskeletal