Researchers from Aarhus University have studied a new group of medicinal products which increase the muscle- and bone mass of mice over a few weeks. This offers hope to the elderly and people suffering from weak muscles and bones due to illness.

2019.03.27 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

Seniors and people suffering from weak muscles and bones due to illness may benefit from a new group of medicinal products, which increases muscle- and bone mass of mice in a few weeks.

It is common knowledge that as people grow older they lose a large part of their muscle mass – and  their bones are not what they once were either. Researchers from Aarhus University working together with researchers at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam have now studied a new group of medication which could prove beneficial for the elderly and the chronically ill who suffer a loss of bone- and muscle mass.

They have named the group of medicinal products IASPs, Inhibitors of the Activin-receptor Signaling Pathway.

"IASPs inhibit a signal pathway which is found in virtually all cells. The difference between the various medications in the group is that they inhibit different routes into the pathway,” explains PhD student Andreas Lodberg from the Department of Biomedicine at Aarhus University.

The researchers have shown that it is possible to achieve an effect on different tissues such as muscle tissue, bone tissue or blood cells depending on the IASP they used.

“We found an increased muscle mass of 19 per cent in mice after just one week. At the same time as an effect on the muscle mass, we saw that the drugs also counteracted osteoporosis,” says Andreas Lodberg.

Acts like EPO

However, there is an Achilles heel. The effect on the blood cells has presented the researchers with a challenge. Thus far the drugs in the group of medicinal products have stimulated the formation of red blood cells as vigorously as EPO.

“This isn’t bad if we’re dealing with someone suffering from anaemia, low muscle mass and osteoporosis all at once, as is the case for some. But for the majority of patients with a normal blood per cent, this increases the risk of blood clots,” he says.

The researchers have therefore been working on a solution. They have succeeded in creating a molecule in the IASP group which for the first time works on bones and muscles but does not affect the blood.

The results have just been published in the international journal The FASEB Journal.

Andreas Lodberg and his colleagues have now begun investigating how IASPs specifically act when building up bone. They use different models in mice to create a loss of muscle mass before examining the tensile strength of the bones and the activity in the cells which break down and build up bones. 

“Our earlier results could indicate that IASPs inhibit cells which break down bone tissue while at the same time the cells which build up bone tissue are stimulated, a phenomenon known as ‘dual-action’,” he explains.

A different IASP that the researchers tested led to a 48 per cent increase in the bone strength of the neck of the femur after three weeks compared to the group that did not receive treatment. 

“If the results of the clinical studies continue to show such promise it may make sense to treat frail elderly patients suffering muscle loss as a result of chronic diseases with an IASP. Both for the individual patient and for the national economy as falls and broken bones in elderly patients are a costly affair with high mortality and also because the loss of muscle mass due to chronic diseases impacts on quality of life and mortality rates,” says Andreas Lodberg.

Background for the results:

The study is basic research.

The study is published in The FASEB Journal and is financed by Health, Aarhus University and Erasmus MC. The laboratory animals are paid for by Arcarios B.V.

Partners: Marco Eijken from Aarhus University Hospital, Annemarie Brüel and Jesper Skovhus Thomsen from Aarhus University, Bram van der Eerden and Johannes P. T. M. van Leeuwen from Erasmus MC.

The article “A follistatin-based molecule increases muscle and bone mass without affecting the red blood cell count in mice” can be read in The FASEB Journal.

Further information

PhD student Andreas Lodberg
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Tel.: (+45) 87167772
andreas@biomed.au.dk