In Mice on Semaglutide, an Enzyme Blocker Aided Muscle Repair
Graded Preliminary — experiments in young male mice with 8 to 10 animals per group; whether the results apply to humans was not tested.
Animal study. Findings may not carry over to people, which is why the grade is capped at Preliminary.
- Design
- Animal study
- Participants
- 8
- Duration
- —
- Funding
- Milky Way Research Foundation, Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford…
In overweight mice on semaglutide, a blocker of the enzyme 15-PGDH helped injured muscle regain more strength.
Weight-loss shots such as semaglutide bring weight down sharply. But part of what is lost is lean tissue, mostly muscle. In experiments with very overweight mice, an added drug helped injured muscle heal better and regain more strength. It did not noticeably reduce the weight loss.
Researchers fed young male mice a very high-fat diet for twelve weeks. The animals then got daily semaglutide, some of them together with a blocker of an enzyme called 15-PGDH. This enzyme breaks down natural signalling molecules and rises after injury and with age. Semaglutide alone made the mice lose about 25 percent of their body weight, and their leg muscles got lighter. After a deliberate muscle injury, the new muscle fibres grew back smaller. With the blocker added, more muscle stem cells divided, the fibres grew larger and the muscles got stronger. Neither drug alone produced this gain in strength.
The experiments used only young male mice. Whether people on weight-loss shots would benefit in a similar way was not tested. According to the authors, the blocker has proven safe in early human trials.
Conflict of Interest Disclosure: One author consults for Epirium Bio and holds patents licensed to it; another co-founded and owns shares in Merrifield Therapeutics.
Disclaimer: Research summaries are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making changes to your health routine.