Follistatin/activin-binding protein

Plain-language summary

Paraphrased from the published abstract below — not a verdict on whether anything works.

This brief review describes follistatin, also called follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) suppressing protein, a protein isolated from side fractions during purification of inhibin and activin. The authors state that follistatin shares with inhibin the property of suppressing FSH secretion from the pituitary gonadotroph but is structurally distinct from inhibin. They note that the observation that follistatin is an activin-binding protein suggests it may have a wider biologic role, given the variety of systems in which activin acts. The abstract provides an overview rather than new experimental data, and reports no species-specific study or numerical results.