A team at Medical College of Georgia have made a mouse with 70% more muscle mass than normal, in the hope it would help them find a way to prevent bones weakening.

By knocking out myostatin, a gene that ensures muscles do not overgrow, the researchers believe that bones may respond to the stress placed on them by forming more bone – helping to fight osteoporosis.

Dr Mark Hamrick said: “We are interested in kids. We want to know how to maximise their bone during peaks of growth while they still can.”

“We can look at whether muscle has more of an impact on bone mass than fat because our mighty mice don’t gain fat,” he added.

Details in BBC News and Eurekalert.

The picture is the Obese Mouse part of Catherine Chalmers’ Transgenic Mice series(2000) where she documents the production of genetically-engineered mice. These mice are programmed to develop tumors, inherit glaucoma or produce milder pathologies.

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