A recent study from Kumamoto University in Japan has found that iron supplements could help reduce muscle damage and improve muscle strength in a rare muscle disease called facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD.
This disease is genetic and currently has no cure or effective treatment. The findings offer hope for people living with this condition.
FSHD causes muscles to get weaker over time. It usually starts in the face and shoulders, and then spreads to the arms and legs. The disease is linked to a harmful protein called DUX4.
This protein isn’t supposed to be active in healthy muscles, but in people with FSHD, it becomes active and starts damaging muscle cells. DUX4 leads to inflammation, stress inside the cells, and muscle breakdown.
In this new study, scientists looked at how iron levels in the body may play a role in this process. Iron is an important nutrient that helps the body carry oxygen and fight infection. But too much iron in the wrong places can be harmful.
When there is too much iron in cells, it can lead to something called oxidative stress, which damages the cells. It can also trigger a type of cell death called ferroptosis.
To explore this, researchers used mice that were specially engineered to have the same kind of muscle damage seen in people with FSHD. These mice had active DUX4 protein in their muscles. The scientists found that DUX4 caused an unusual build-up of iron in the muscle tissue, which led to more damage and loss of muscle strength.
Then, the team gave iron supplements to the mice in two ways: through their diet and by injecting a type of iron called ferric carboxymaltose, which is already approved by the FDA for treating iron deficiency.
Surprisingly, instead of making things worse, the iron treatment helped. It reduced the harmful iron buildup in the muscles and improved how the muscles looked and worked.
The treated mice had stronger muscles, better grip strength, and were able to run longer on a treadmill. These improvements happened even though the DUX4 protein was still active. This shows that iron supplements helped by acting on the damage caused by DUX4, not by stopping the protein itself.
The researchers also looked at the genes in the muscles and found that iron treatment reduced the activity of certain pathways that cause inflammation and cell damage. In addition, the team tested many compounds in the lab to see if any could block the effects of DUX4.
One drug called ferrostatin-1, which stops ferroptosis, also helped the mice get stronger. This points to ferroptosis as a possible target for future treatments.
Professor Yusuke Ono, who led the study, said that fixing iron balance in muscle cells could be a new way to help people with FSHD. Even if doctors can’t fully block the harmful protein, they might still be able to protect the muscles by treating the damage it causes.
This study is important because it suggests a new and possibly safer way to help patients with this muscle disease. Iron supplements are already used for other health problems, so doctors might be able to try them for FSHD more quickly than brand-new drugs.
However, more research and clinical trials are needed to make sure this approach is safe and works well in people.
In summary, this research shows that iron may play a much bigger role in muscle health than previously thought. By restoring iron balance in the muscles, doctors may be able to slow down or reduce muscle damage in FSHD. While this is only the beginning, it offers new hope for treating a disease that has few options.
If you care about muscle, please read studies about factors that can cause muscle weakness in older people, and scientists find a way to reverse high blood sugar and muscle loss.
For more health information, please see recent studies about an easy, cheap way to maintain muscles, and results showing these vegetables essential for your muscle strength.
The study is published in Journal of Clinical Investigation.
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