4-Phenylbutyric acid (4-PBA, Benzenebutyric acid) is a histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor and a key epigenetic inducer of anti-HCV hepatic hepcidin. Here’s some stuff on histones. MOre on histones. “HDAC4, which is expressed in prehypertrophic chondrocytes, regulates chondrocyte hypertrophy and endochondral bone formation by interacting with and inhibiting the activity of Runx2” It’s possible since histone inhibition does enhance differentiation it may increase adult height. But it also make differentiation happen sooner thus reducing adult height. So there’d need to be experimentation done to see whether this makes children grow faster but reduces overall growth plate growth or whether it it makes children faster and increases overall growth plate based growth.
A compound called tubacin could also increase height by histone HDAC6 inhibition. There’s still no over the counter tubacin.
“Short stature is a major skeletal phenotype in osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a genetic disorder mainly caused by mutations in genes encoding type I collagen. However, the underlying mechanism is poorly understood and no effective treatment is available. In OI mice that carry a G610C mutation in COL1A2, we previously found that mature hypertrophic chondrocytes (HCs) are exposed to cell stress due to accumulation of misfolded mutant type I procollagen in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). By fate mapping analysis of HCs in G610C OI mice, we found that HCs stagnate in the growth plate, inhibiting translocation of HC descendants to the trabecular area and their differentiation to osteoblasts. Treatment with 4-phenylbutyric acid (4PBA), a chemical chaperone, restored HC ER structure and rescued this inhibition, resulting in enhanced longitudinal bone growth in G610C OI mice{so we don’t know if this will help in normal people}. Interestingly, the effects of 4PBA on ER dilation were limited in osteoblasts and the bone fragility was not ameliorated. These results highlight the importance of targeting HCs to treat growth deficiency in OI. Our findings demonstrate that HC dysfunction induced by ER disruption plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of OI growth deficiency, which lays the foundation for developing new therapies for OI.”
This would have to be tested on normal mice to see if it works.
