The study, led by Gerard Karsenty, MD, Ph.D., head of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Medical Center will be published in the journal Cell March 4 next.
Until now, the interaction between bone and reproductive systems only focus on the influence of the gonads (sex glands) in the formation of bone mass.
"Because communication between the two organs in the body are rarely the same direction, the fact that the gonads regulate bone raises the question: Is bone regulate gonad?" said Dr. Karsenty.
Dr. Karsenty and his team get their first clue to an answer on their reproductive success in laboratory rats.
Previously, researchers have observed that male rats do not menyembunyikan skeletal bone hormone osteocalcin is pengembangbiak bad.
The researchers then conducted some experiments that showed that osteocalcin strengthen the production of testosterone, sex steroid hormones that control male fertility.
Once they add to the portion that osteocalcin in our body to produce testosterone, the synthesis increases. Similarly, when they inject into the body osteocalcin male rats, the levels of circulating testosterone also increases.
Conversely, when there is no osteocalcin, testosterone levels drop and causes decreased sperm counts.
When the male mice that lack osteocalcin were mated with normal female mice, they only produce half of the glands that can produce a normal couple.
Although not yet confirmed this finding to humans, Dr. Karsenty believes that there are similar characteristics in humans given the hormone mice and humans is similar.
If osteocalcin also encourages the production of testosterone in men, low levels of osteocalcin may be the reason why infertile men had low testosterone levels.
Amazingly, despite the new findings came from an observation of estrogen and bone mass, the researchers could not membutkikan that skeleton affect reproduction in women.
Estrogen hormone is considered one of the most controlling bone; when the ovaries stop producing estrogen in women at menopause, bone mass decreases rapidly and cause osteoporosis.
Sex hormones - estrogen in women and testosterone in men - known to affect the growth of the skeleton, but until this moment, various studies on the interaction of bone with the reproductive system only focused on how sex hormones affect bone skeleton.
"We do not know why the bone to regulate levels of male fertility, rather than in women. Even so, if you want to breed the species, is very likely to take advantage of this invention to facilitate the male reproductive capability," said Dr. Karsenty. "It's the only sensible thing that I think could explain why osteocalcin regulate reproduction in male rats, not in female rats."
Surprising relationship between bone frame with male fertility is one of a number of astonishing discoveries related to the skeleton in recent years.
In previous papers, Dr. Karsenty found that osteocalcin helps control the secretion of insulin, glucose metabolism, and weight.
"What this research demonstrated is that we know so little of psychology, by asking questions rather naive, we can explore the important discoveries," said Dr. Karsenty.
"It also shows that the bone affects a series of important functions that are affected during the aging process. As it is, this finding indicates that the bones are not simply victims of the aging process, but also become active determinants of aging itself," he explained.
Next, the researchers plan to determine the signaling pathway that is used to multiply the production of osteocalcin when testosterone.
And for potential drug development - because the researchers also have identified the receptor on osteocalcin -, need more fleksibiliats in designing drugs by adopting osteocalcin effect.
Is it for the metabolism of glucose or fertility, knowing that the receptor will facilitate the chemists in developing efficacious ingredients, he said. Karsenty.
"This study extended the repertoire of psychological osteocalcin, and provides the first evidence that the skeleton is a regulator of reproduction," said Dr. Karsenty.
Thank's for ur visited to my blog ^_^
0Awesome Comments!