ACE-031 vs Follistatin
How ACE-031 and Follistatin compare — what each is, how strong the human evidence is for each, doses reported in research, the key risks, and 2026 US legal status. No universal winner.
ACE-031 and Follistatin come up together when people are weighing similar options. Here's the honest side-by-side: what each is, how strong the human evidence is for each, the doses reported in research, the risks, and where each stands with the FDA as of 2026. There's no universal winner — scroll to the by-goal picks for which one fits which goal.
ACE-031 vs Follistatin, point by point
Every dimension side by side — the honest differences, not a scoreboard.
| Dimension | ACE-031 | Follistatin |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | ActRIIB-Fc fusion decoy receptor protein (not a peptide) | Endogenous glycoprotein that binds and neutralizes myostatin and activin; sold online as a research peptide, and studied in humans only as gene therapy |
| Class / category | GH secretagogues | GH secretagogues |
| Evidence tier | Human RCT · Harmful | Animal-only · Helped · none in humans |
| Studied / approved for | Duchenne muscular dystrophy; Muscle atrophy and muscle wasting | Muscle growth / myostatin inhibition; Muscular dystrophy (gene therapy); Age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia) |
| US regulatory status (2026) | research use only (as of Jul 2026) | research use only (as of Jul 2026) |
| Doses reported in research | No established study doses | No established study doses |
| Registered trials (ClinicalTrials.gov) | No data | 14 |
| Banned in sport (WADA) | Yes — on the WADA prohibited list | Yes — on the WADA prohibited list |
| Key risks | Human trials identified nosebleeds, gum bleeding, and telangiectasias, meaning small dilated vessels visible near the skin. The Duchenne trial stopped on preliminary safety data, and no long-term human safety program established a dose that preserves muscle effects without the vascular liability. Products sold online add a separate identity, purity, and sterility risk. | Human safety data for the injectable follistatin peptide are essentially absent. What little human safety information exists comes from small gene-therapy trials, where the localized approach was generally tolerated over the study window — which is not the same as establishing that an injected follistatin peptide is safe. Follistatin sits in pathways that also touch reproduction, inflammation and cell growth, so blocking them broadly is not consequence-free, and no long-term human data exist. |
- Evidence tier: A tier reflects how human the evidence is, not a promise the compound works.
Which one fits which goal?
There's no universal winner here — the honest answer depends on what you're after. These picks are framed by goal, and each says why.
If you want the option with more human evidence behind it
Leans toward ACE-031
ACE-031's evidence sits at human rct, a more human tier than Follistatin's animal-only. That reflects how the data was gathered, not a guarantee it works.
References
- 1.Campbell et al., 2017 - ACE-031 in ambulatory boys with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (PMID 27462804)
- 2.Attie et al., 2013 - single ascending-dose ACE-031 study in healthy volunteers (PMID 23169607)
- 3.ClinicalTrials.gov - ACE-031 in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (NCT01099761)
- 4.NCATS Inxight Drugs - Ramatercept identifiers and investigational status
- 5.USAN Council - ramatercept nonproprietary-name statement
- 6.Reichel et al., 2025 - black-market ACE-031 product analysis (PMID 40312924)