Need help interpreting this study on MSM, looking for science minded people!

Hey everyone, so I take MSM daily as just an overall booster for my hair. I like how it helps it grow faster etc.

I stumbled on this study, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19336900, which says : "MSM significantly inhibited the release of nitric oxide and prostaglandin E(2) by alleviating the expression of inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 in LPS-stimulated RAW264.7 cells."

Now I know nitric oxide is critical for erections so I was very concerned when I read this. My question is: is this saying it is only lowering NO when it is released as part of inflammation or is it just lowering NO overall, regardless?

Any insight on this is greatly appreciated!

Anyone?

Caustic symmetry, nidhogge, anyone? :-(

There isn't a whole lot to analyze there in the abstract by itself. I was having trouble getting the link for the full text. But this shows promise for MSM.

LPS induces release of pro-inflammatory substances by immune cells, probably from the gut mucosa. MSM seemed to inhibit NF-kB signalling in vitro, at least partially from preventing breakdown of the inhibitor of NF-kB. It also seemed to reduce NO and PGE, by reducing iNOS.

When the liquid that covered the cell culture contained MSM, the cells expressed lower levels of interleukin-6 and TNF-a, being a sign of reduced inflammation.

The interesting piece for me was that in vivo MSM had the same effects topically in lowering inflammation in the mouse ear that was artificially given edema.

A few things to keep in mind though, murine=mice, so any results had here were on mouse cells. The merit of using mice is the degree of similarity in our immune system components, but there is a lot of variation overall so you don't always get perfect extrapolation to humans.

Second, we don't have much of an idea of the amounts used, other than 500-1250 mcg per ear for the latter part. Given that these are mice, we'd need substantially more, but luckily that wasn't a whole lot. I'd like to know the amounts used for the earlier parts of the study, and then we could probably do a bit of math to come up with how much we should be taking.

Thanks for the reply Anthony. Would you say this could be interpreted that MSM would lower nitric oxide across the board under all circumstances in the body? (negative side effect) Or would you think that it only does in relation to the inflammatory process? (isolated, specific)

Thanks!

Nope, definitely not. NO is too important for so many other bodily functions, and luckily, NO synthase, which is responsible for producing it, has several forms.

The eNOS and nNOS forms of this are calcium sensitive and act in the endothelium and neurons, respectively. The iNOS (inducible) is basically just a part of our immune system. Unlike the other ones, it isn't calcium sensitive but is instead sensitive to inflammatory cytokines like NF-kB and the interleukins.

So my guess would be that MSM is somehow inhibiting these signals so that iNOS doesn't start to produce large physiological amounts of NO.

NO is a free radical so iNOS produces a ton of it in the presence of other oxidative threats like tumors or bacterial infections in order to stave them off. But there are other pathological problems with iNOS that sometimes cause people to produce far too much (involved with autoimmunity), especially in people with hypersensitivity (to food and things that make contact with the skin). So MSM would appear to be beneficial, along with anything else that lowers NF-kB, for people with sensitivities or autoimmune conditions.

So yeah, MSM probably doesn't intervene with iNOS directly, but instead lower NF-kB. This would not mean NO produced through other processes would be reduced, as they are more dependent on calcium levels. You could take MSM and still get an erection haha.

As a side note, pathological production of too much NO by iNOS slows down smooth muscle contraction, lowers gut motility, and promotes overgrowth of bacteria there and also low acid levels. This perpetuates a leaky gut situation, so anybody with SIBO or IBD should be interested in something like MSM.

Thanks for that informative reply. Yeah, I definitely didnt want to be interfering with the good ol' sexual function, lol. I already went down that route once with propecia so Im hyper averse to any possible red flags that could come from meds/supps.

The short answer on the iNOS, is that Peroxynitrite is generated by inducible nitric oxide synthase, say in the case of LPS.

There are some older posts on the "NO-ONOO" cycle.

https://immortalhair.forumotion.com/t1630-no-onoo-cycle

Hey Immortal, so you are seconding what anthony is saying about MSM only effecting NO specific to the inflammation process right?

Just bumping this real quick. Immortal, still wondering if you could confirm: MSM only effects NO in relation to the inflammatory process and not as an automatic affect of consumption correct?

Please Immortal, just looking for a quick confirmation of your opinion on this to ease my mind

Hey SH, have you tried PM'ing him? Being that he already chimed in on this thread a while back, he might just gloss over it now. Try PM'ing him if you haven't. Also you probably have a better bet of getting his attention if you address him in the title of the post. So you could send this study out to him that way and ask your specific question.

sizzlinghairs wrote:Hey Immortal, so you are seconding what anthony is saying about MSM only effecting NO specific to the inflammation process right?

No worries about MSM. There are other factors involved with nitric oxide.