The fertility of men lies in the bones

American researchers have discovered that skeletons act as a mechanism to control male fertility through a bone-producing hormone called osteocalcin.

According to Science Daily , the study was conducted by Dr. Gerard Kasenty's team, director of the Department of Genetics and Development at Columbia University Medical Center. The results of the study will be published in Cell Medical Journal on April 4, 2011.

Important role of bone continues to be confirmed - Photo: Science Daily

Until now, the link between bone and reproductive system only focused on the effect of gonads on the formation of bone mass.

For a long time, people wondered if bones adjusted gonads? Kasenty's team has done many experiments to show that osteocalcin increases the production of testosterone hormones, the hormone that controls male fertility. When the researchers added osteocalcin to the skeleton, the level of testosterone production increased. In contrast, when there is no osteocalcin, the amount of testosterone decreases, leading to a decrease in sperm count. When male mice lacked osteocalcin to be living with normal female mice, their number of parities decreased by half and the number of mice was less than those of normal mice.

Although research results have not been proven in humans, Karsenty hopes to find similar properties based on the similarities between hormones of mice and humans. If osteocalcin also promotes the production of testosterone in men, the level of osteocalcin may cause infertile men to have low levels of testosterone.

It is noteworthy that although this finding comes from studying the relationship between estrogen (female sex hormones) and bone mass, researchers found no evidence that bone affects ability. breeding of females

The discovery of the link between bone and fertility of males is one of the surprising findings in recent years regarding the skeleton. In previous studies, Dr. Karsenty noted, osteocalcin helps control insulin secretion, glucose metabolism and body weight.