One molecule gone astray may greatly affect sex hormones
The Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council or BBSRC has been finding essential results and information through their numerous researches. They recently found out that a hormone which is responsible for the inception of puberty can be caught in the wrong part of the body in instances when the nerve pathways that accounts to its transport to the brain do not develop properly. Scientists from University College London (UCL) have found out that if a significant molecule is misplaced, the pathways are not formed in the proper manner. This will result into the blocking of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) in the nose or forehead than in the brain, where the control of menstrual cycle in females and testosterone production in males must take place.
The findings of BBSRC were published today, November 29, in Human Molecular Genetics. Dr. Christina Ruhrberg, co-investigator of the said study, explained that they have discovered a molecule that is considered as essential for the growing nerve cables responsible for transmitting odor. Ruhrberg added that the pheromone signals from the nose to the brain also play a vital role in the growth of the highways where other nerve cells making up the sex hormone GnRH are transported. The study done by Ruhrberg shows that those mice with inborn deficiency in the molecule SEMA3A have highways that did not connect properly to the brain. Instead, the highways formed tightly packed tangles outside the brain area, thus totally impassable. There is now way for the nerve cells making up the GnRH to reach the brain which is the final destination. The cells just get stuck on the forehead or nose.
The researchers found out that the testes of mice which lacked SEMA3A were unable to grow accordingly making the adult male mice sterile. The findings gathered by the research team supply valuable repercussions to aid in the study of Kallmann’s syndrome and other associated genetic disorder that result to infertility.
Professor Douglas Kell, the Chief Executive of BBSRC, said that the study draws attention to just how important it is to understand the earliest developmental course of action of the brain. The study also shows how and where these cells are developed, and how they travel and grow.