The cessation of growth, natural in all living beings, is not yet well understood by scientists. A team of researchers has uncovered the role of a gland in the fruit fly which could well exhibit mechanisms similar to those in humans. An important advance in the understanding of growth disorders, and in particular early puberty.
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From the moment we are created, until the end of puberty, we – and all living organisms – grow. Naturally, we cannot grow all our lives, but the subject is more complex than it seems! To tell the truth, until now, scientists did not understand the mechanisms behind this biological evidence.
But a study, published last October in the Pnas magazine, could well be a game changer: a team of researchers, led by biologist Alexander Shingleton from the University of Illinois at Chicago, has discovered the potential trigger for stunted growth in fruit flies! An advance which could allow us to better understand what is happening in humans, and in particular the mechanisms behind precocious puberty, which is increasingly frequent and can have psychological consequences and lead to fertility problems.
Is growth arrest a gland issue?
Researchers therefore became interested in ecdysone, a steroid hormone equivalent to estrogen and testosterone in humans, and involved in the growth of fruit flies. To test its role in stopping this growth, they developed a mathematical model which showed that it is the gland that produces ecdysone that triggers the cessation of growth. In the larval stage, this gland receives a lot of nutritional information that helps it regulate ecdysone production.
When ecdysone reaches a certain concentration level, the gland no longer needs this nutritional information to make decisions and begins to self-regulate. It would therefore be the transition to self-regulation of the gland which would decide on the cessation of growth. This advance has yet to be tested in mammals, but Alexander Shingleton is optimistic, since the growth of fruit flies and that of humans both involve similar steroid hormones!
