Not adrenaline, but osteocalcin?
Biologists have discovered a new "stress hormone"
Sergey Vasiliev, Naked Science
A rapid heartbeat, trembling limbs, a surge of energy and a passionate desire to "beat or run" – we habitually attribute all the familiar sensations of mobilizing the body in response to a threat to the influence of adrenaline, the adrenal hormone. However, a new paper published in the journal Cell Metabolism (Berger et al., Mediation of the Acute Stress Response by the Skeleton) threatens to shake this old dogma.
According to the authors – Gerard Karsenty and his colleagues from the Irving Medical Center at Columbia University (CUIMC) – a not so well-known hormone osteocalcin may play a key role in triggering the physiological "fight or flight" reaction. It is secreted by osteoblast cells, and until now it was believed that its role is only to regulate the growth of the skeleton.
In fact, the importance of bone tissue is often underestimated, although in fact it provides the body not only with structural support and protection, but also produces blood cells, participates in the work of immunity and synthesizes hormones. It is this function of the skeleton that the research of Gerard Karsenti's team is devoted to.
In their recent experiments, scientists subjected mice to stressful effects (the presentation of the smell of cat urine), measuring the levels of various homones. At the same time, there was a sharp increase in the amount of both adrenaline and osteocalcin.
The same experiments were conducted on animals after surgical removal of the adrenal cortex and artificial suppression of its functions. As one might expect, in response to stress, their content only of osteocalcin jumped: they were unable to produce adrenaline. Nevertheless, the mice showed all the classic signs of a "hit or run" reaction.
Conversely, no such reaction was observed in animals with suppressed osteocalcin synthesis, despite the increased level of adrenaline.
Loud statements require equally loud and reliable evidence, so the current work is unlikely to immediately reverse the traditional ideas about the development of stress and the "fight or flight" reaction. Nevertheless, the functions of adrenaline and osteocalcin clearly need additional verification and clarification.
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