Myostatin

Myostatin (also known as growth differentiation factor 8, abbreviated GDF8) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the MSTN gene. Myostatin is a myokine that is produced and released by myocytes and acts on muscle cells to inhibit muscle growth. Myostatin is a secreted growth differentiation factor that is a member of the TGF beta protein family.

MSTN
Available structures
PDBOrtholog search: PDBe RCSB
Identifiers
AliasesMSTN, GDF8, MSLHP, myostatin
External IDsOMIM: 601788 MGI: 95691 HomoloGene: 3850 GeneCards: MSTN
Orthologs
SpeciesHumanMouse
Entrez

2660

17700

Ensembl

ENSG00000138379

ENSMUSG00000026100

UniProt

O14793

O08689

RefSeq (mRNA)

NM_005259

NM_010834

RefSeq (protein)

NP_005250

NP_034964

Location (UCSC)Chr 2: 190.06 – 190.06 MbChr 1: 53.1 – 53.11 Mb
PubMed search
Wikidata
View/Edit HumanView/Edit Mouse

Myostatin is assembled and produced in skeletal muscle before it is released into the blood stream. Most of the data regarding the effects of myostatin comes from studies performed on mice.

Animals either lacking myostatin or treated with substances that block the activity of myostatin have significantly more muscle mass. Furthermore, individuals who have mutations in both copies of the myostatin gene (popularly, but inaccurately called the "Hercules gene") have significantly more muscle mass and are stronger than normal. There is hope that studies into myostatin may have therapeutic application in treating muscle wasting diseases such as muscular dystrophy.

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