Blood measurements
BLOOD, LIVER
Blood samples were taken from an antecubital vein on days 1 and 42 and collected in EDTA tubes to aliquot plasma. The collected blood samples were stored on ice for 30 min before centrifuging at 1000 g for 10 min at 4°C, and plasma was aliquoted into Eppendorf tubes for analysis. A commercial GDF-8/Myostatin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit (R&D systems, Minneapolis, NM, USA) was used to assess circulating myostatin concentration. Liver enzymes, ALT, ALP, and AST were measured using UV absorbance (Roche Cobas 8000 System, Indianapolis, IN, USA), and BUN, creatinine, glucose, albumin, and bilirubin were measured by UV-Visible Spectrophotometer-CHEM7 by the McMaster University core clinical laboratory services. All assays had an intra-assay CV of less than 3.5%