it’s a miracle hormone

The researchers plan to conduct future studies on the molecular mechanisms of CCN3 and its levels in lactating women.

bone loss happens not only in postmenopausal womenbut this also usually happens in breast cancer survivors who take certain hormone blockers, young elite athletes and in highly trained and older men, who have lower relative survival than women after hip fracture.

For this reason, it is important to receive treatment that stops the bone loss that causes severe pain that can only be treated with certain analgesics. However, scientists from the University of California in San Francisco and the University of California at Davis (USA)), have discovered a hormone that maintains bone strength in breastfeeding women and may also help treat bone fractures and osteoporosis in the general population. This hormone is known as maternal brain hormone 3 (CCN3). and increases bone density and strength.

Their results, published in Naturesolve the old riddle of how bones women remain relatively strong during breastfeeding, even when calcium is removed from bones to maintain milk production.

“One of the most remarkable aspects of these results is that if we had not studied female mice, which is unfortunately the norm in biomedical research, we might have missed this discovery,” says Holly Ingram, senior author of the new paper and a professor of cellular molecular pharmacology at the University of California, San Francisco. “This highlights how important is it to observe both male animals as women throughout their lives to fully understand their biology.

Ingram and her staff’s work focused on finding exhausting this hormone which promotes bone formation, and finally identified CCN3 as the factor responsible in the mutant females. The team was initially surprised by this result, since CCN3 did not match the typical profile of a hormone secreted by neurons.

Their doubts were allayed when they found CCN3 in the same brain region in lactating female mice. Without CCN3 production in these selected neurons Lactating female mice rapidly lost bone mass, and their offspring began to lose weight.confirming the importance of the hormone in maintaining bone health during breastfeeding. Based on this discovery, CCN3 is now called maternal brain hormone (MBH).

When strategies were implemented to increase circulating CCN3 in young and old adult mice, both female and male, His bone mass and strength increased dramatically within a few weeks.In some female mice that lacked estrogen or were very old, CCN3 was able to double bone mass.

“We have never been able to achieve this type of mineralization and healing with any other strategy,” — says Ambrosi. “We are very excited to continue this approach and potentially apply CCN3 in the context of other problems such as cartilage regeneration.

The researchers plan to conduct future studies on the molecular mechanisms of CCN3, its levels in lactating women, and the potential of this hormone for treatment. various bone conditions.