Androgens affect myogenesis in vitro and increase local IGF-1 expression

Abstract

The mechanism whereby anabolic androgens are associated with hypertrophy of skeletal muscle is incompletely understood but may involve an interaction with locally generated insulin-like growth factor (IGF) 1. The present investigation utilized a cell culture model of human skeletal muscle-derived cell maturation to test the hypothesis that androgens increase differentiation of human muscle precursor cells in vitro and to assess effects of androgen with or without IGF-1 on IGF-1 messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in human muscle precursor cells.