Super Muscular Mice Could Help Treat Diabetes, Make You Buff

Researchers can make Mighty Mice by tinkering with their proteins before they are born, a new study suggests. These super mice have bigger and stronger muscles than their normal counterparts later in life.

The protein the researchers blocked, called Grb10, seems to regulate muscle development, since the researchers only changed the protein while the mice were in the womb. When they turned off the protein during development, the researchers saw more muscle and stronger muscle in the mice when they become adults.

They found that, instead of larger muscle fibers, the mice had a greater number of muscle fibers — the individual segments that make up the muscles.

The finding actually comes out of a diabetes and obesity research program — this protein responds to insulin signals, and muscularity seems to go along with other traits that seem to protect a person from diabetes. These include how the body handles sugars and fats and how well it responds to insulin....