Synergism

Synergism

We all know that some steroids increase each others effect, hence cycles and stacks.

Like arnold said “If you can’t grow on Deca and Dianabol, you can’t grow on anything”. We all know injectables and orals combine great. Still I know a lot of athletes that only use injectables. 

An interesting study:

If you look at the effect of steroids on the level of the muscle cell, then steroids differ more from each other than scientists thought. We came to this conclusion after German researchers have done experiments with genetically altered cells.

The German researchers modified cells from hamsters. In the genetic material of those cells they added new genes, causing the cells to produce androgen receptors (proteins where androgens should dock to start an effect) . If an androgen docks to the androgen receptor, it promotes a signal to three different genetic switches in the genetic material of cells. These switches are called 'Promoters'. When a receptor activated a promoter, then the cell produced a fluorescent protein. The more protein, the more powerful the androgenic signal was.

The promoters differed from each other somewhat. And it is precisely because of this diversity, that the researchers chose them. From other researchers and companies, they became the androgenic switches MMTV, (ARE) 2TATA and GRE-OCT. The researchers funneled those switches with a plasmid ring, into the cells. Then the researchers exposed the modified cells to various concentrations of DHEA, androstenedione, testosterone, DHT, nandrolone, stanozolol, oxandrolone and methyltrienolone. Methyltrienolone, a potent androgen that is so toxic that it did not came to the market.

The researchers put all the measurements in the computer, and had it classify the steroids in families and classes. Thus arose profiles and families of steroids, ranked according to their androgenic effects at cellular level. The result of that calculation is shown below. R1881 is the same as methyltrienolone.

The researchers had actually expected that there would be three groups of steroids: the testosteronprecursors DHEA and androstenedione, the natural androgens testosterone and DHT, as well as the anabolic steroids. Reality proved them wrong.

Also for steroids users, the above chart interesting. Experience has shown that steroids with a different effect amplify each others anabolic effect. The diagram above gives some suggestions.

According to these tests effective combinations include testosterone and oxandrolone, testosterone and stanozolol, nandrolone and oxandrolone, nandrolone and stanozolol.

Nandrolone and testosterone would add little to each other's effects, just like oxandrolone and stanozolol.

Testosterone was the most potent stimulator of GM cells. Even more potent then DHT. Androstenedione, and to a lesser extent DHEA, yielded surprisingly powerful stimuli of the androgen receptor - less powerful than anabolic steroids, but  close. At least with concentrations higher than 1 nanomoles.

We need to keep in mind that  the genetic enginered  cells, the researchers used, of course, are not identical to the cells in human muscles. The German researchers know that too. Yet they think that these cells are able to predict the effect of androgens better, than the system  where researchers only look on how strong an androgen docks to the receptor (AR).

Holterhus PM, Piefke S, Hiort O. Anabolic steroids, testosterone-precursors and virilizing androgens induce distinct activation profiles of androgen responsive promoter constructs. J Steroid Biochem Mol Biol. 2002 Nov;82(4-5):269-75.

Source

Department of Pediatrics, Medical University of Lübeck, Germany. holterhus@paedia.ukl.mu-luebeck.de

Abstract

Different androgens, e.g. virilizing androgens such as testosterone and its precursors as well as synthetic anabolic steroids, respectively, induce diverse biological effects. The molecular basis for this variety in biological actions, however, is not well understood. We hypothesized that this variability of actions may be due to steroid-specific target gene expression profiles following androgen receptor (AR)-activation. Therefore, we investigated androgen receptor dependent transactivation of three structurally different androgen responsive promoter constructs ((ARE)(2)TATA-luc, MMTV-luc, GRE-OCT-luc) in co-transfected Chinese hamster ovary (CHO)-cells as an artificial model simulating different natural target genes. Three virilizing androgens (dihydrotestosterone, testosterone, methyltrienolone), three anabolic steroids (oxandrolone, stanozolol, nandrolone) and two testosterone-precursors of gonadal and adrenal origin (dehydroepiandrosterone, androstenedione) were used as ligands (0.001-100 nM). All steroids proved to be potent activators of the AR. Remarkably, anabolic steroids and testosterone-precursors showed characteristic promoter activation profiles distinct from virilizing androgens with significantly lower (ARE)(2)TATA-luc activation. Hierarchical clustering based on similarity of activation profiles lead to a dendrogram with two major branches: first virilizing androgens, and second anabolics/testosterone-precursors. We conclude that steroid-specific differences in gene transcription profiles due to androgen receptor activation could contribute to differences in biological actions of androgens.