Life has been keeping me rather busy too, but couldn't resist procrastinating some of the work to take a quick look at the follistatin info. It seems like follistatin could explain several of the features of the little ones. The one that Tanya autopsied had diminished secondary sex characteristics, and follistatin plays a role in suppressing FSH which is important for women to show the effects of puberty.

Follistatin also looks like it could be responsible, at least partially, for the tumor-riddled appearance that was mentioned. It's involved in cellular differentiation, and anytime you have a pathway where cellular growth or cellular differentiation is unchecked, you increase the risk for cancer. Also, since differentiation pathways would probably be more involved with high levels of follistatin, you would have lower-grade tumors. Lower-grade tumors don't generally metastasize as easily (exceptions always possible) which means it's not a perfect match for the "riddled" appearance. On the flip side, a lower grade generally means a better prognosis, so if the end goal is to find a cure, it may be possible to nip those sorts of tumor in the bud early in the changing process.

*tin foil hat* if you can cause a zombie cancer to go into remission, is it just a matter of time (5-10 years) before you start seeing recurrences??

Back to work for me!