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New Zealand researchers have unravelled a puzzle about a heart hormone, discovering it plays a crucial role in bone growth.
Otago University researchers Professor Eric Espiner and Dr Tim Prickett, working with scientists in the United States, were researching a heart hormone, C-type Natriuretic Peptide (CNP), which was discovered in 1990.
Professor Espiner and the Christchurch Cardioendocrine Research Group showed for the first time that CNP, previously thought to regulate blood flow to tissues, also acts as a vital signal for bone growth at crucial stages in fetal and childhood development.
"This is a major advance in our understanding of how the skeleton develops in humans and could greatly assist in the early diagnosis and treatment world-wide of growth disorders in thousands of children, and those with rare bone disorders," he said.
"After years of analysis we've demonstrated that the heart hormone CNP is produced at high levels in the fetus, and during rapid bone development at birth, with levels then slowly falling as growth rate slows.
"Then there's another surge in CNP around puberty when there's a new growth spurt and skeletal development."
The scientists developed a test that has been the key to unlocking understanding of how CNP works in the body.
"Previously the hormone was only able to be measured in minute quantities in heart tissues and small blood vessels," Dr Prickett said.
- NZPA
