Hormone in Biological News

Lack of happiness hormone serotonin in the brain causes impaired maternal behavior in mice

A lack of serotonin, commonly known as the "happiness hormone", in the brain slows the growth of mice after birth and is responsible for impaired maternal behavior later in life. This was the result of research conducted by Dr. Natalia Alenina, Dana Kikic, and Professor Michael Bader of the Max De...

Pregnancy hormone predicts postpartum depression

Irvine, Calif. Women who have higher levels of a hormone produced by the placenta midway through pregnancy appear more likely to develop postpartum depression, a study authored by a UC Irvine researcher finds. The discovery could help identify and treat women at risk for postpartum depression ...

Apelin hormone injections powerfully lower blood sugar

By injecting a hormone produced by fat and other tissues into mice, researchers report in the November Cell Metabolism that they significantly lowered blood sugar levels in normal and obese mice. The findings suggest that the hormone known as apelin might be a promising target for managing insul...

Birth control has long-term effect on hormone exposure

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. Researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine may be one step closer to understanding why past oral contraceptive use dramatically lowers the risk of ovarian and uterine cancers later in life. While studying the effect of post-menopausal dietary soy consumption ...

Prostate cancer vaccines more effective with hormone therapy

PHILADELPHIA Among patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer, the addition of hormone therapy following vaccine treatment improved overall survival compared with either treatment alone or when the vaccine followed hormone treatment, according to recent data published in the July 15 Clin...

High hormone levels in seabird chicks prepare them to kill their siblings

The Nazca booby, a Galpagos Island seabird, emerges from its shell ready to kill its brother or sister. Wake Forest University biologists and their colleagues have linked the murderous behavior to high levels of testosterone and other male hormones found in the hatchlings. The study appears in...

T-cadherin affects blood vessel growth in breast cancer, hormone from fat cells may play a role

Researchers at the Burnham Institute for Medical Research (Burnham) may have found a new option for targeted breast cancer therapy by showing the link between a certain protein and the formation and development of blood vessels that feed breast tumors. Like mortar between bricks in a wall, T-cadhe...

NC State researchers identify genes key to hormone production in plants

Researchers at North Carolina State University have pinpointed a small group of genes responsible for telling plants when, where and how to produce a hormone that is key to their development. Their findings shed light on the ways in which hormone production in plants affects both a plants growth ...

MU researcher links hormone replacement therapy to breast cancer

COLUMBIA, Mo. Millions of post-menopausal women use hormone replacement therapy (HRT) as a method to reduce symptoms associated with menopause. In a recent University of Missouri study, researchers found that one of the hormones used in HRT, a synthetic progestin, could be a major factor in promo...

Human hormone blocker found to help prevent obesity and diabetes: study

BETHESDA, MD - A new study finds that a chemical found in the body is capable of promoting weight loss, improving insulin resistance and reversing diabetes in an animal model. The hormone is gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) receptor blockade. Background GIP is a peptide hormone that is...

Predicting growth hormone treatment success

Growth hormone treatments work better on some children than on others, but judging which candidates will gain those vital inches in height is no simple task. Now researchers have developed a new mathematical model which predicts the optimal dose of growth hormone to treat children who are abnormal...

EMD Serono launches easypod, new electronic growth hormone injection device

Rockland, Massachusetts, December 6, 2007 - EMD Serono, Inc. announced today the availability of easypod, the first of its kind automated device in the growth hormone therapeutic area. easypod was developed for the administration of Saizen [somatropin (rDNA origin) for injection], the companys tr...

Obesity-related hormone is higher in children with Down syndrome

Children with Down syndrome are more likely than their unaffected siblings to have higher levels of a hormone associated with obesity, according to pediatric researchers. The hormone, leptin, may contribute to the known higher risk of obesity among children and adults with Down syndrome. A rese...

Fatty foods -- not empty stomach -- fire up hunger hormone

CINCINNATINew research led by the University of Cincinnati (UC) suggests that the hunger hormone ghrelin is activated by fats from the foods we eatnot those made in the bodyin order to optimize nutrient metabolism and promote the storage of body fat. The findings, the study's author says, turn ...

Scientists find potential protein biomarkers for growth hormone

SAN FRANCISCO Ohio University scientists have identified several proteins in mice that might act as biomarkers for growth hormone. The research could be the first step to finding a more reliable way to detect recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), which some athletes and teenagers use illegally...

Effects of social isolation traced to brain hormone

The anxiety and aggression that result from social isolation have been traced to altered levels of an enzyme that controls production of a brain hormone. The study, done in mice by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, is reported in this week's online additi...

Study finds Viagra increases release of key reproductive hormone

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison report this month that sildenafil increases the amount of oxytocin released by stimulation of the posterior pituitary gland, a small structure directly underneath the brain that regulates hormone levels in response to neural signals. The finding...

Circadian clock controls plant growth hormone

The plant growth hormone auxin is controlled by circadian rhythms within the plant, UC Davis researchers have found. The discovery explains how plants can time their growth to take advantage of resources such as light and water, and suggests that many other processes may be influenced by circadian...

Scientists find hormone activity explains adolescent mood swings

The "raging hormones" of puberty are known to produce mood swings and stress for most teenagers, making it difficult to cope with this period of life. Until now, the specific causes of pubertal anxiety have not been identified, making it harder to understand and treat adolescent angst. In the cu...

Natural gut hormone offers hope for new obesity drug

A hormone found naturally in the gut is the basis of a new drug to tackle obesity, one of three inaugural awards under the Wellcome Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery initiative. The drug is being developed by one of the world's leading obesity experts, Professor Steve Bloom at Imperial College London'...

Growth hormone is not the anti-aging bullet for healthy adults

A review of published data on use of human growth hormone (GH) by healthy elderly people found that the synthetic hormone was associated with small changes in body composition but not in body weight or other clinically important outcomes. Further, people who took GH had increased rates of unheal...

Pregnancy hormone key to repairing nerve cell damage

The mystery of why multiple sclerosis (MS) tends to go into remission while women are pregnant may be the secret to overcoming the devastating neurodegenerative disease, according to University of Calgary researchers who have shown that a pregnancy-related hormone is responsible for rebuilding the ...

Growth hormone to boost athletic performance risks diabetes

Use of growth hormone to boost athletic performance can lead to diabetes, reports a study published ahead of print in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The study reports the case of a 36 year old professional body-builder who required emergency care for chest pain. He had lost 40 kg in...

Eating protein boosts hormone that staves off hunger

The amount of a hunger-fighting hormone can be increased by eating a higher protein diet, researchers report in the September issue of the journal Cell Metabolism, published by Cell Press. The hormone, known as peptide YY (PYY), was earlier found by the researchers to reduce food intake by a third ...

Adults who go to bed lonely get stress hormone boost next morning

A new study that takes a rare look at the physiological, social and emotional dynamics of day-to-day experiences in real-life settings shows that when older adults go to bed lonely, sad or overwhelmed, they have elevated levels of cortisol shortly after waking the next morning. Elevated levels of...

Salk scientists untangle steroid hormone signaling in plants

When given extra shots of the plant steroid brassinolide, plants "pump up" like major league baseball players do on steroids. Tracing brassinolide's signal deep into the cell's nucleus, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have unraveled how the growth-boosting hormone accomplis...

UC San Diego biologists solve plant growth hormone enigma

Gardeners and farmers have used the plant hormone auxin for decades, but how plants produce and distribute auxin has been a long-standing mystery. Now researchers at the University of California, San Diego have found the solution, which has valuable applications in agriculture. The study, publ...

Possible brain hormone may unlock mystery of hibernation

The discovery of a possible hibernation hormone in the brain may unlock the mystery behind the dormant state, researchers reported in the April 7, 2006 issue of Cell. Hibernation allows animals from bears to rodents to survive unscathed--in a state of suspended animation--under the harshest of wint...

Worm hormone discovery may aid fight against parasitic disease

New research at UT Southwestern Medical Center shows that on a biochemical level, hormone-like molecules in tiny worms called nematodes work similarly to the way in which certain hormones work in humans ?findings that one day may help eradicate worm infections that afflict a third of the world's po...

Macrophage signaling may affect hormone resistance in prostate tumors

Interaction between prostate cancer cells and immune cells called macrophages may be a source of inflammatory signals capable of impacting the effectiveness of androgen antagonists, the most common and effective treatment for prostate cancer, according to a new study by researchers at the Universit...

New brain hormone puts brakes on reproduction

University of California, Berkeley, researchers have discovered a new actor in the mammalian reproductive system, a hormone that fills a role long suspected, but until now undetected. The hormone, a small protein, or peptide, called gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH), puts the brakes on repro...

Growth hormone is made in the brain, report scientists

Scientists have found that growth hormone, a substance that is used for body growth, is produced in the brain, according to an article published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The researchers -- from three institutions –?found that growth hormone is produced withi...

Suppressing growth hormone in early adulthood may prevent cancer

A modest suppression of growth hormone and related compounds beginning in early adulthood may delay the onset or progression of several types of cancer, researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and other centers reported today at ENDO 2005, the annual meeting of the Endocrine Soci...

Menopause Symptoms May Come Back After Stopping Menopausal Hormone Therapy

Women who take soy or herbal supplements, such as black cohosh, red clover and ginseng, should do so with care, says a Cornell University expert affiliated with the Program on Breast Cancer and Environmental Risk Factors (BCERF) at Cornell, the land-grant institution of New York state. "Although ...

University of Nevada, Reno research team discovers hormone that causes malaria mosquito to urinate

Discovery has implications for control of mosquitoes, malaria and West Nile Virus Prior to coming to Nevada 16 years ago, David Schooley was a key figure at a small company in Palo Alto, Calif. that developed methoprene, an insecticide that halts the maturation of insect larvae to adults. Me...

Measuring hormone cuts antibiotic use in half in pneumonia patients

Measuring a hormone in the blood can help doctors greatly reduce the number of days pneumonia patients have to take antibiotics to cure their infection, according to a study to be presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference on May 24. In the study, pneumonia patients whose...

Deficiency of growth hormone and IGF-1 reduces cancer and kidney disease, but creates other problems

Deficiencies of growth hormone and similar compounds may reduce cancer and kidney disease late in life, but also may lead to cartilage degeneration and impaired memory and learning ability, according to research at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and four other institutions. The res...

Mary had a lot of lambs: Researchers identify way to accelerate sheep breeding

...oral fellowship at Cornell. "In this case, we're talking about a receptor gene for melatonin," Thonney explained. Melatonin is a naturally produced hormone commonly found in many animals. The change in the DNA sequence of the M allele does not change the amino acid sequence of the protein. This means that...

Hormone levels contribute to stress resilience

...e (CDQC). Dehydroepiandrosterone, or "DHEA" as it is commonly known, is a hormone that is secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress. Although medi...this was also true for humans. The scientists completed psychological and hormone assessments on a group of soldiers the day before they began the month-long...

The way you eat may affect your risk for breast cancer

...Center at the Jewish General Hospital, both in Montreal. This study "contributes to accumulating evidence that caloric restriction acts by altering hormone levels rather than by directly starving cancers of energy. In particular, lower levels of insulin are associated with reduced food intake, and this ma...