Transcript Genetics (to generate- the coming into being)

Myostatin and Myostatin Inhibitors: The
Next Big Supplement Scam
by Paul Cribb, B.H.Sci HMS
AST Director of Research
A few years ago a report in the media blew the minds of
bodybuilders who were wise enough to read the AST web site
daily. Research performed by scientists from the Johns
Hopkins University had created "massively-muscled, Arnold
Schwarzenegger-like mice" by genetically engineering
animals with a missing growth regulator called myostatin.
Myostatin is a gene that is a member of the Transforming
Growth Factor-b (TGF-b) Superfamily.1 These genes encode
factors that are essential to proper biological development
during the embryonic stage.2 They are specifically expressed
before birth.
Genetically engineered myostatin-free mice and cattle exhibit
twice the lean muscle mass as their normal stable-mates,
without extra feeding or resistance training!3 The important
thing to understand is that these animals were genetically
engineered to not possess the myostatin gene because
myostatin limits muscle growth.
Human Genetics
Human genetics is an intensely personal and
fascinating science. Its subject matter
touches all facets of our being, biological,
social, and philosophical. Each passing day
new knowledge opens a window into our
genetic soul and widens an already existing
one. Human genetics may be the most
rapidly expanding science in the world today.
1990-John B. Jenkins
Genetics (to generate- the coming into
being)
The study of variation in humans or in lifeincludes heredity and environmental effects
• What is inherited?
• How is the genetic material transmitted from cell to
cell? From parent to child?
• How does the genetic material work to make us become
unique individuals?
• Can it be changed or made?
• ‘Facts vs. Speculation’
• Birth Defects
January is Birth Defects Prevention month. For more
information, visit the Web site of the National Birth
Defects Prevention Network.
About 150,000 babies are born each year with birth
defects. The parents of one out of every 28 babies receive
the frightening news that their baby has a birth defect.
A birth defect is an abnormality of structure, function or
metabolism (body chemistry) present at birth that results in
physical or mental disability, or is fatal. Several thousand
different birth defects have been identified. Birth defects
are the leading cause of death in the first year of life.
• (CNN) -- A British man was jailed for raping two
of his daughters and fathering nine children over
27 years, a case with echoes of Austria's Josef
Fritzl.
• The two daughters were made pregnant 19 times;
there were nine births, five miscarriages and five
terminations. Seven of the children are alive but
suffer genetic deformities.
Statistics of Genetic Disease
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As many as half of all miscarriages - genetic defects
About 40% of all infant mortality results from genetic factors
50% of mental retardation has a genetic basis
30-50% of post-neonatal deaths -genetic malformations
3-5% of all births result in congenital malformations
7% of all stillborns have a chromosomal abnormality
30% of pediatric hospital admissions are for children with
genetic disorders
12% of adult hospital admissions are for genetic causes
15% of all cancers have an inherited susceptibility
10% of the chronic diseases(heart, diabetes, arthritis) in
adult populations have a signif. genetic component
50,000 cases of birth defects per million compared to polio
before vaccine which was 367.4 cases per one million
Incidence of Genetic Diseases
• Down syndrome (1/600 live births and increases with
age of mother
• Pregnant and age 35 or above(risk of chromosome
aneuploidy)
• Cystic Fibrosis (1/2500 Caucasian Americans)
• Fragile X syndrome(1/1,000 males and 1/800 female
carriers of which 30% will be mentally retarded
• Sickle cell disease (1/500 of African American births)
• Hemophilia – Factor VIII Deficiency (48/100,000 male
births)
• Duchenne muscular dystrophy (200/million male
births)
• Hemochromatosis (1/4500 individuals)
• Breast cancer (1/8 women of which 5-10% will have a
genetic predisposition)
Ancient Beliefs-Reproduction and Heredity
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The Egyptians (8000 -10,000 B.C.) 'Wheat'
Phoenicians (c 8000 B.C) 'Horses'
Babylonians (c 8000 B.C) 'Olives'
Assyrinians (c 8000 B.C) 'Dates‘
Greeks (500 B.C)
Middle Ages (1000's)
Renaissance (1400 -1600 A.D.)
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1600's) 'Microscope'
Schleiden and Schwann (1800's) 'The Cell'
Charles Darwin (1850's) 'Variation and Evolution'
Gregor Mendel (1850's) 'Principles of Heredity'
Ancient Belief Cont.
• Heredity meant-the procreation of offspring of the
same kind with same or similar features
• Plato-Realized the makeup of a human is inherited and
that his father and mother both took part in
transmitting various characteristics
• Plato further thought that the mental, moral and
physical condition of parents during intercourse was
transmitted to their offspring.
• Plato thought that semen originated in the brain and or
spinal cord and passes through the testis
• Others- believed that male and female produced semen
and the preponderance of one or the other determined
the sex of the child.
• Thick semen produces male, thin semen produces
female
Ancient Belief Cont.
• Ancients-Male Semen alone is progenitive.
• Sex determined by temperature of the womb.(warm uterus
produced a male while a cold uterus produced a female.
• Right and left theory- Males come from the right testicle(right
side is prefect, strong and warm) Females come from the left (left
side is imperfect, weak and cold)
• Formation of Semen
• Semen formed from four “humors” –blood, bile, water,
and phlegm
• Humors present in parents and transmit health and
diseases
• Aristotle-Hematogenic theory of semen
– Semen from blood
– Development of child- male provides control and shape of
matter and matter or substance for the child provided by
female
• Romans and Birth Defects
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Pregnant woman eating salty foods- child with no nails
Yawning during childbirth – stillborn
Sneezing after copulation – abortion
Smell of lamps being extinguisheing – malformed child
• Greeks and Birth Defects
• Abnormal babies due to copulation with animals
• As a result during Middle Ages women burned at the
stake for giving birth to a malformed child.
Ancient Theories of Heredity
• Heredity control by male. Semen determines heredity.
• Pangenesis---Particles from parts of body of both
parents transported to reproductive system where at
conception they fuse
• Preformation - Homunculus – Spermists and Ovists
Preformed person in miniature in the sperm or egg.
Grows and develops in female.
• Epigenesis-Differentiation as growth occurs Heredity
factors contributed by both parents that determine the
progeny.
• Kleb's Concept
All the observable traits of an organism are the direct result
of many internal activities which are, in turn, controlled by
heredity and influenced by the environment.