30 mg per day of 20-hydroxyecdysone administered orally did not significantly affect anabolic or catabolic responses to resistance training, body composition, or training adaptations. However, a number of earlier studies (,) supported the anabolic effects of 20-Hydroxyecdysone. A more recent study conducted in 2019 by a team that included the Department for Molecular and Cellular Sports Medicine at the German Sport University Cologne, found that significantly higher increases in muscle mass were observed in participants dosed with ecdysterone, with significantly more pronounced increases in one-repetition bench press performance. The study was funded by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and demonstrated a significant dose-responsive anabolic effect of 20-Hydroxyecdysone supplementation on athletes during resistance training. Furthermore, recent studies () have elucidated that the mechanism of action of 20-Hydroxyecdysone on human muscle cells is relatively selective activation of the beta form of the estrogen receptor (ERβ), which is known to result in muscle hypertrophy. Use as research tool 20-Hydroxyecdysone and other ecdysteroids are used in biochemistry research as inducers in transgenic animals, whereby a new gene is introduced into an animal so that its expression is under the control of an introduced ecdysone receptor. Adding or removing ecdysteroids from the animal's diet then gives a convenient way to turn the inserted gene on or off (see ecdysone receptor). At usual doses, 20-hydroxyecdysone appears to have little or no effect on animals that do not have extra genes inserted; it also has high bioavailability when taken orally, so it is useful for determining whether the transgene has been taken up effectively. For uses in gene therapy, it may be necessary to investigate more thoroughly the natural sources of ecdysteroids in humans (which appear to include dietary phytoecdysteroids, gut flora, helminth infections, and other diseases). External links Ecdybase, The Ecdysone Handbook - a free online ecdysteroids database References Insect hormones Primary alcohols Sterols Tertiary alcohols