Actually, I find these two stories to be connected…and vaguely creepy. Maybe because I just finished reading the trade paperback edition of "The Truth."
Muscle building gene therapy might build super athletes, scientist warns
By Paul Recer, Associated Press, 2/16/2004 16:20
SEATTLE (AP) Gene injections in rats can double muscle strength and speed, researchers have found, raising concerns that the virtually undetectable technology could be used illegally to build super athletes.
A University of Pennsylvania researcher seeking ways to treat illness said studies in rats show muscle mass, strength and endurance can be increased by injections of a gene-manipulated virus that goes to muscle tissue and causes a rapid growth of cells.
''The things we are developing with diseases in mind could one day be used for genetic enhancement of athletic performance,'' Lee Sweeney said Monday at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Scientists turn fat cells into fat-burning machines
2/17/2004
In what sounds like every dieter's dream, scientists have figured out a way to turn fat-storing cells into little fat-burning machines. Unfortunately, it has only been done in laboratory rats, and the human applications remain in the future. Nevertheless, the scientists say it could eventually lead to new ways to help Americans fight their expanding waistlines.
"This is in no way a cure for obesity," said Roger H. Unger of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, who led the work. "But it is a road map. It's a strategy for future research."
Unger and his colleagues injected rats with a virus genetically engineered to carry the gene for the hormone leptin, which is normally produced by fat cells. The virus infected the animals' livers, causing the organ to produce leptin. The resulting high levels of leptin in the animals' bloodstreams made the rats rapidly lose weight.
When Unger and his colleagues examined the animals' fat cells, they discovered that they had shriveled in size and were chock-full of an unusually large number of structures known as mitochondria, tiny energy-producing powerhouses inside cells, said a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The findings indicate that fat cells normally develop a defense against their own leptin, which would explain why injecting the hormone into the body has failed to make people lose weight. But when the hormone comes from another part of the body, it appears to bypass that defense. If researchers could identify that mechanism and harness it, that could lead to new weight-loss treatments, Unger said.
Posted by P6 at February 17, 2004 07:44 AM
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Comments
Let's just say that as much as I bitch and moan about the FDA slowing down medical progress, I won't be a first adopter of these technologies.
Posted by Phelps at February 17, 2004 01:36 PMpart of me would love taht super athelete gene and the other part says i'd probably feel guilty because all the super stuff wasn't earned. The guilty part is winning as of now. back to the iron, lol.
Posted by terry at February 17, 2004 04:51 PM