The bear does not wash all his life, and does not suffer from osteoporosis
Bears will help people overcome bone fragilityBears' parathyroid hormone prevents bone thinning and calcium leaching from them
more effective than the human counterpart of this hormone.Kirill Stasevich, Compulenta
Once we spend just a few days without exercise, our bones begin to weaken. If you lie in bed for weeks, you can earn full-fledged osteoporosis, when bones break from the slightest whiff.
CT scan of a healthy bone (left)
and bone affected by osteoporosis
(illustration by ibmphoto24).
In fact, the main cause of osteoporosis is not immobility: the disease occurs with age, when the leaching of calcium from the bones increases (and its replenishment slows down). Women after menopause are particularly susceptible to osteoporosis. But it was a low—activity lifestyle as one of the risk factors that led scientists to an unusual idea - to look for a remedy for osteoporosis not from anyone, but from bears.
Indeed, bears spend more than one month in hibernation and at the same time keep their skeleton in a completely healthy state. One of the obvious reasons is the effective work of the bear parathyroid hormone. This hormone is also present in humans, and its function is the same — to take care of bone health, but in terms of effectiveness, apparently, it is inferior to the bear analogue. To work with it (so as not to search for bears in the forests), the researchers used a recombinant version of the hormone: the DNA sequence encoding it was inserted into the Escherichia coli Escherichia coli, which synthesized the amounts of the hormone needed for the study.
Scientists from Michigan Technological University (USA) tested the effect of human and bear parathyroid hormones on human osteoblasts — cells that synthesize bone matter. According to preliminary data, the bear analogue better prevents cell death and has a more serious effect on the signaling pathway that controls the formation of bones in humans.
The next stage of the work will be to check the positive effect of parathyroid hormone on a woman's body during postmenopause, when the risk of osteoporosis increases several times. To do this, the mice will have their ovaries removed in order to simulate menopause and the corresponding biochemical rearrangements, after which the rodents will be injected with a human and bear analog of the hormone. According to the head of the research team, Professor Seth Donahue, a successful result in this experiment will mean that the production of bear parathyroid hormone can be put on stream.
Prepared based on the materials of PhysOrg: Bears may hold key to osteoporosis treatment.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru08.04.2011