Microbiology/Genetics

Why Are You too Short or too Tall?

Just a bone protein...

By Stefan Anitei, Science Editor

20th of December 2007, 10:58 GMT

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Being a midget may have produced you a lot of sexual frustration and may have made you wear Prince trade mark hair due and heeled shoes. And neither being lanky proves to be sexy nowadays. In both cases, put it on a damned protein.

A new research published in the "Journal of Biological Chemistry", by a team led

by Dr. Pierre Moffatt, of the Shriners Hospital for Children, in Montreal, and by McGill University's Department of Human Genetics, has discovered the molecular pathway through which the protein osteocrin induces bone growth, a finding that could help individuals who experience bone diseases affecting skeletal growth, namely from dwarfism to gigantism.

Osteocrin is a peptide (small protein) synthesized by the bone-forming cells (osteoblasts). In order to assess its role, the researchers engineered mice that over-expressed osteocrin. These individuals grew hunchbacks and elongated bones. Following the mechanism of this development, the researchers discovered that osteocrin was involved in the local control of the bone's supply of C-type Natriuretic peptide (CNP), a 22 amino acid peptide, which acts like a hormone, being a strong vasorelaxant that has a crucial role in the bone growth.

"The osteocrin gene was discovered as part of a project to identify novel bone genes that might have possible therapeutic actions. The project focused on the identification of classes of genes which are particularly attractive to medical researchers because they can be potentially exploited to develop new drug-based therapies", said Dr. Pierre Moffatt.

"This fundamental research could pave the way to the rationalized design of new molecules which could have beneficial effects in various disorders that impair bone growth, particularly in children", he added.

TAGS:

bone | protein | hormone

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