11 ms·
Scientists discover a new hormone that can build strong bones in mice
- hooverd 2y agoAh, bone healing juice.
- manav 2y agoIs there a good HN equivalent specifically for science/med/bio news? I do find interesting papers here on the topic although it's not the core focus.
- pps 2y agohttps://www.reddit.com/r/science/ https://www.reddit.com/r/science/ - you can filter it by field
- rednerrus 2y agoIf this sub is the state of modern science, we are in a lot of trouble.
- hypeatei 2y agoReddit isn't the state of anything in the real world, it's a bubble.
- 3abiton 2y agoWait till the bots "fully" take over.
- DiscourseFan 2y agoPretty big bubble
- ak217 2y agohttps://www.science.org/ https://www.science.org/ https://www.eurekalert.org/ https://www.eurekalert.org/ https://phys.org/ https://phys.org/
- yayamo 2y agoNo, nothing quite like HN (aggregator) exists that I've found, which is unfortunate. In this space a lot it seems most of the discussion happens on twitter, discord, or between blog posts and for the most part not in comment sections. Additionally med/bio is such a wide field I get the sense most people stick to their niche and struggle to keep up with that. However for news sites and latest: https://endpts.com/ https://endpts.com/ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/ https://www.fiercebiotech.com/ https://www.statnews.com/ https://www.statnews.com/ https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=news-and-views https://www.nature.com/nature/articles?type=news-and-views https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/trending/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/trending/
- Sparkyte 2y agoCan't wait for breaking a hip at 80 to be a thing of the past. Bone health is also a contributor in life expectancy and health of a person altogether. I read a study if you can assure your bones are healthy you can assure your health longterm.
- masfuerte 2y agoIs bone health like grip strength? Grip strength correlates with life expectancy because it is a good proxy for overall health, but if you just work on your grip strength you won't get much healthier.
- ilc 2y agoNo, because if you break a hip, you lose a ton of mobility, which will cause an avalanche of problems.
- samatman 2y agoNot entirely, for a pretty obvious reason: breaking a bone at an advanced age is not infrequently the beginning of the end. Not enough to make it primary (in other words, your point about bone density as a correlate rather than a determinate is basically correct), but enough that improving just bone health on a widespread basis should help with life expectancy as well.
- throwaway2037 2y agoWhat is so special about grip strength? I never heard anything about this before your post.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- UncleOxidant 2y agoWonder if it would help teeth as well?
- birriel 2y agoI don't know about this hormone, but human clinical trials for a tooth-regrowing drug will begin in September. It was successful in animal models. https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-first-tooth-regrowing-drug-has-been-approved-for-human-trials-174423381.html https://www.engadget.com/the-worlds-first-tooth-regrowing-dr...
- v8xi 2y agoIf this works and becomes a common dental procedure I will be soooo happy. Every time I go to the dentist I ask them if anything like this is coming down the pipeline and they laugh...
- danvoell 2y agoAmazing! Can anyone hypothesize whether it could have adverse effect towards cancer cells? Im dealing with someone who has osteoporosis due to cancer treatment.
- cactusfrog 2y agoProbably promote cancer cell growth as well
- gwerbret 2y ago@dang or whoever: I want to protest the recent (as in, after it was originally posted) addition of "in mice" to the title of this thread. It turns a significant scientific discovery into something that seems tawdry and meaningless. Discoveries in mice involving novel biological mechanisms can be important for at least 3 reasons: - The mechanisms discovered work exactly the same way in humans. This is not a long shot at all, as mice aren't that far from humans genetically and physiologically. - The mechanisms work slightly different in humans, pointing us to different natural solutions to a problem. - The mechanisms work entirely different in humans, pointing us to potentially-important evolutionary divergences (maybe the biology was improved on in humans). In any of these instances, the findings remain important, and "in mice" just cheapens that. After all, this work was published in Nature, which is still one of the top journals in any research field. The folks running the journal may have their issues, but they're not all idiots. Edit: wording.
- bheadmaster 2y ago> It turns a significant scientific discovery into something that seems tawdry and meaningless. > Discoveries in mice involving novel biological mechanisms can be important [...] If discoveries in mice can be important, then how does stating that they're in mice make them less important?
- gwerbret 2y agoBecause people have a tendency to automatically dismiss findings when they're said to be "in mice".
- defrost 2y agoMore to the point, it's a gendered difference, in mice and likely in humans also. “One of the remarkable things about these findings is that if we hadn’t been studying female mice, which unfortunately is the norm in biomedical research, then we could have completely missed out on this finding,” Many people understand that results in mice indicate similar results in humans, those that don't are likely to misunderstand or dismiss work in other ways in any case.
- _f9cu 2y ago[dead]
- DonHopkins 2y agoOh great, just what my cat wants: crunchier mice.
- _visgean 2y agoJust what we need, super strong mice!
- pfdietz 2y agoIt sounds like CCN3 (NOV) has widespread effects in the body. Also, this wikipedia page needs updating for this result. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOV_(gene) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOV_(gene)
- RayanBouzarni 2y ago[flagged]
- sharpshadow 2y ago“One of the remarkable things about these findings is that if we hadn’t been studying female mice, which unfortunately is the norm in biomedical research, then we could have completely missed out on this finding…” Imagine then how much we missed from male mice.
- venkat223 2y agoIf a person goes on eating mango fruit in the seasons his bones get stronger and that calcium harmones are triggered
- venkat223 2y agoIn young age mango fruit eaters get strong bones till old age or even death
- moh_maya 2y agoCan you please share some evidence (peer-reviewed scientific research publications / clinical data) supporting this? Curious about the potential mechanisms.
- mynjin 2y agoSo is it reasonable to assume that males who induce lactation will also produce this bone building maternal brain hormone?
- m3kw9 2y agoIn the medical world “Could” means you are step 2 of 100 to a released product
- hulitu 2y ago> Scientists discover a new hormone that can build strong bones in mice Why do they need strong bones in mice ? Biological weapons ?
- jl6 2y ago> To test the ability of the hormone to assist in bone healing, the researchers created a hydrogel patch that could be applied directly to the site of a bone fracture, where it would slowly release CCN3 for two weeks. In elderly mice, bone fractures don’t usually heal well. However, the CCN3 patch spurred the formation of new bone at the site of the fracture, contributing to youthful healing of the fracture. So, uh, did this research involve breaking mice bones?
- bregma 2y agoTell me about the rabbits again George.
- sva_ 2y agoYou know when they kill a mouse in the lab they call it a 'sarcrifice'. There's some harrowing stuff and I personally would probably not be able to do it. I think most ppl who do it just happened to find themselves in a part of their academic career where they have little choice if they want to proceed.
- Thorrez 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_laboratory_mouse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monument_to_the_laboratory_mou...
- amelius 2y agoWhere is the monument to the Beef Cow?
- snakeyjake 2y agoKansas City, MO, USA https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1003469,-94.5952033,3a,56.6y,150.5h,99.92t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sN7CfbamwIC1lunc1X_XcvQ!2e0!7i16384!8i8192?coh=205409&entry=ttu https://www.google.com/maps/@39.1003469,-94.5952033,3a,56.6y...
- bulbosaur123 2y agoThe billion dollar question: can this somehow help develop treatment for making bones longer?
- bregma 2y agoAccording to the unsolicited email I regularly receive, there are already products on the market for making bones longer. And lasting all night, which would I guess make it significantly easier to get out of bed in the morning.
- isoprophlex 2y agoI'm missing something, what good are long bones, specifically? Seems to me strength is the most important parameter, especially in aging populations..?
- toomuchtodo 2y agoHeight, dating marketplace. Status in general. https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-07-19/dating-apps-and-male-beauty-standards-why-are-tinder-users-so-obsessed-with-height.html https://english.elpais.com/culture/2022-07-19/dating-apps-an... https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamfauzia/height-dating-apps https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/miriamfauzia/height-dat... https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/only-15-women-interest-58-men-dating-apps-according-survey https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/only-15-women-interest-58-... https://theblog.okcupid.com/the-big-lies-people-tell-in-online-dating-a9e3990d6ae2 https://theblog.okcupid.com/the-big-lies-people-tell-in-onli...
- Wohlf 2y agoIf everyone is 6 foot no one is. 7 foot would just become the new baseline.
- isoprophlex 2y agoOkay wow that's immediately obvious. Thanks... My mind got stuck at octogenarians growing absurdly long bones in the autumn of their lives
- hzay 2y agoThis is great. My mother had osteoporosis and I hope they come up with a therapy she can use! However as a currently breastfeeding mother, I'm asked by doctors to take calcium supplements every day (I only remember it once a week or so), and they threaten me with future osteoporosis if I don't take it. But these researchers are saying that breastfeeding mothers' bones aren't affected despite calcium depletion? Fwiw I've also read research that the bones are indeed affected (as measured by density) but they rebound after you stop breastfeeding. I remember that the most depletion happened in the lumbar region, and that the rebound didn't happen fully if there was "parity" (multiple kids). So idk. I hope their premise is correct.
- jimmaswell 2y agoMy water supply appears to be flush with calcium - I have to poke my shower head's holes out every few months. I wonder if it's good for me or if it's in too large of excess. Would probably help if I remembered the vitamin D more often, since you need that to absorb the calcium.
- bornfreddy 2y agoTip: vinegar does wonders (for shower heads, not absorption).
- everybodyknows 2y ago> (I only remember it once a week or so) Yikes. How about one of those 7-compartment SMTWTFS pill boxes? Store it alongside your morning coffee supply.
- hzay 2y agoMy amnesia is somewhat intentional. Like some of the commenters here, I'm doubtful if I should really take it everyday. Just seems excessive? Did it during pregnancy ofc, and it's not like the early days of breastfeeding when you're making almost a liter a day (kiddo is 2.5 so while still BFing, it's not an important source of food), so idk. My grandmother had like 10 kids, breastfed them all and never had bone issues. My mother breastfed us v little (<6 months all together) and got osteoporosis. I'm not at all sure how well-supported this recommendation is. I try to eat more yogurt/kefir instead.
- ck2 2y agoThis will incidentally be helpful to space travel to Mars and living there. Among the dozen other serious health problems with zero/low gravity like oh serious eye problems, humans sadly aren't going to Mars anytime soon. Then again this would need to be tested on the moon or in orbit first, might not make a difference even with the hormone. (vitamin K2 might help too)
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoOne step closer to being able to make Belters.
- inglor_cz 2y agoIf you lose 10 per cent of your bone density on the way to Mars, but then live in the conditions of 0.33 G, doesn't it cancel out? The real nasty problem would be getting back to Earth.
- snewman 2y agoIn many ways it doesn't cancel out. On Mars, things weigh less but their mass is the same. So, for example, if you are walking on Mars at a normal Earth walking speed, and you bump your shin on something, the inertia of your leg as it hits the obstacle is just as great as the inertia of your leg on Earth. In general, a lot of the little physical interactions that you rely on bone strength to get through scale according to mass / inertia (and muscle strength), not weight.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jijijijij 2y agoI just wanted to say, I really appreciate your tangent here. Space travel didn't come to my mind at all and your comment made me feel the tiny things contributing to larger stories, for a moment. Caught me weirdly off-guard.
- shiroiushi 2y agoYou're ignoring the prime reason humans aren't going to travel to Mars anytime soon: radiation. Good luck getting there without accumulating a huge dose of hard radiation that gives you cancer. This is why we should be worrying about building human settlements on the Moon first: we can put them underground (for radiation shielding, plus other benefits like avoiding meteorites), and the travel time is so short that the cumulative radiation exposure is very low. 3 days of exposure to cosmic rays is very low compared to a year or so, or at best 6 months. Once we have manufacturing capability on the Moon, we can build much larger ships that have some decent radiation shielding. Of course, the low gravity causes a bunch more problems. But here again, with significant space- and Moon-based industry, we could build much larger ships with spin gravity. This doesn't help the people working on the Moon though, but at least here we could cycle them on and off the Moon every 6 months or so, since the trip is only 3 days, so they could come back to Earth and re-acclimate to 1g periodically. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/explorers-will-face-dangerous-amounts-radiation-their-trip-mars-180970384/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/explorers-will-fac...
- ImHereToVote 2y agoBy all accounts seems like this is a cure to age related bone loss. Almost everyone suffers from age related bone loss of some degree. Would like love to hear news about commercialisation of this.
- cjbgkagh 2y agoIn my 20 mins of searching; it looks like it's CCN3 is produced by humans (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOV_(gene) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NOV_(gene)) and presumably humans have the receptors for it as well - though I'm uncertain if the same effect in mice will translate to humans. Since naturally occurring genes and genetic sequences are not patentable even if they don't commercialize you could probably get a 3rd party to make it reasonably cheaply. So if it is found to work I wouldn't even worry about commercialization.
- ImHereToVote 2y agoI just want to buy it once by bones start to get retarded.
- rjurney 2y agoSo long as its safe. Almost always, these things don't pan out... or at least the first molecular iteration. That's the primary reason medicine is so expensive.
- nextos 2y agoYes, the trick will be to prevent too much growth and therefore the appearance of rogue mutants that may lead to e.g. osteosarcoma. Lots of organs in the body lack regeneration capabilities once you age as an evolutionary mechanism to avoid tumors. Uri Alon's book Systems Medicine has lots of models to explain those differences depending on e.g. organ size.
- Qem 2y agoI was wondering just about this, if hormone replacement therapy is really that safe, as one can imagine the natural drop in its levels with age may not necessarily be pathological itself, but a protection mechanism. Like the ageing body were an old boiler you can't just do a overhaul, so as the pipes rust, you turn the pressure down, to keep it operating it within a safe envelope. HRT then would be like an unwitting intern trying to improve the system by cranking the settings up back to the level of a brand new one.
- lacrosse_tannin 2y agoDoes it do anything for connective tissue?
- MrDrMcCoy 2y agoAccording to the article, that's the next thing they're going to test for.
- Brechreiz 2y agoIt's ok if you drink plenty of malk.
- qwertox 2y agoNever heard of malk. Googling it just yields a brand.
- FrustratedMonky 2y agoA little of the Moloko Plus "The Korova milkbar sold milk-plus, milk plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what we were drinking."
- aspenmayer 2y agohttps://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Malk https://simpsonswiki.com/wiki/Malk https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Malk https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Malk https://frinkiac.com/caption/S06E21/319051 https://frinkiac.com/caption/S06E21/319051
- pixl97 2y agoIt's got vitamin R
- tbirdny 2y agoThis is great. But, the root of the problem for most postmenopausal women is simply the lack of estrogen. You need estrogen to make bone. Men and women do. Men are mostly protected from osteoporosis because they convert testosterone to estrogen. Elderly men have more estrogen than postmenopausal women. Their levels go to near zero. It's a tragedy that more doctors don't recommend HRT for older women, at least some level of replacement, maybe not up to peak levels when they were younger. The lack of estrogen causes a lot of suffering.
- ravenstine 2y agoMen are also more likely to do strength training, which also helps build bone density. Women are also more likely to regularly perform cardio/aerobic exercises, which can reduce bone density when done in excess and without adequate nutrition. Lack of estrogen is of course the root, but I think we can't dismiss behavior differences contributing to the effect. In my experience, many women do minimal to no strength training because they're worried that muscle tone will make them look masculine. Maybe this is a really bad idea to live by.
- amelius 2y ago> Women are also more likely to regularly perform cardio/aerobic exercises, which can reduce bone density when done in excess and without adequate nutrition. What is the biological mechanism behind this statement?
- ravenstine 2y agoElevated cortisol (in response to the stress of running or whatever) increases bone resorption and inhibits bone growth. This isn't necessarily an issue for anyone doing lots of cardio, but it's an increase in risk. It also reduces protein synthesis, which is important for both muscle and bone (it isn't just calcium).
- magicalist 2y ago> Elevated cortisol (in response to the stress of running or whatever) increases bone resorption and inhibits bone growth Cortisol is also released during strength training, though. Seems like a real issue is low impact cardio, which isn't negative for bone density (as far as I can tell) but does have a theoretical opportunity cost when you could be doing weight-bearing cardio, which does improve bone density. Agreed with littlestymaar's comment higher up, though, that exercise rates being what they are, the theoretical opportunity cost may be quite theoretical.
- kingkawn 2y agoTriggering Paget’s disease in 3, 2,…