Comment · Mon, May 20, 2024 · ND Owner
Study: Acteoside Improves Muscle Atrophy and Motor Function by Inducing New Myokine Secretion in Chronic Spinal Cord Injury
Original post in this thread
MisterYouAreSoDumb · 36 points
We found a study on acteoside (verbascoside) from Cistanche that is really interesting!
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6599386/
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I'll copy the abstract below, and some highlights I found particularly cool.
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Chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) is difficult to cure, even by several approaches effective at the acute or subacute phase. We focused on skeletal muscle atrophy as a detrimental factor in chronic SCI and explored drugs that protect against muscle atrophy and activate secretion of axonal growth factors from skeletal muscle. We found that acteoside induced the secretion of axonal growth factors from skeletal muscle cells and proliferation of these cells. Intramuscular injection of acteoside in mice with chronic SCI recovered skeletal muscle weight reduction and motor function impairment. We also identified pyruvate kinase isoform M2 (PKM2) as a secreted factor from skeletal muscle cells, stimulated by acteoside. Extracellular PKM2 enhanced proliferation of skeletal muscle cells and axonal growth in cultured neurons. Further, we showed that PKM2 might cross the blood–brain b…
What they were answering
Where_am_i2045 · 1 points
I remember reading a few articles that made the case that cistanche can reduce muscle loss, but that it doesn’t contribute to new muscle growth or performance. So for you average health conscious individual, cistanche might be a good option if they get injured or otherwise can’t train, but probably not the best supplement for increasing muscle growth or performance. If this information is incorrect I will be happy to be proved wrong.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · ND Owner
Most of the studies are looking at preventing muscle loss in diseased states. That's more a function of disease research getting all the funding, though. That being said, this study is interesting.
This mechanism should absolutely work in healthy individuals. Some people also only notice it if they combine Cistanche with phosphatidylserine, as that helps uptake cholesterol into cells, where it can then convert to pregnenolone/DHEA. The below post has some people reporting on their effects with Cistanche.
https://www.reddit.com/r/NootropicsDepot/comments/1805l9e/what_is_your_experience_with_cistanche/