Research news: Discovery may help efforts to build bone

The News:
Discovery may help efforts to build bone
Osteoporosis experts are thrilled to hear serotonin can regulate bone density.
By Gina KolataThe New York Times
Updated: 11/27/2008 11:51:18 PM MST
Bone formation appears to be controlled by serotonin, a chemical previously known mainly for its entirely separate role in the brain, researchers are reporting.
The discovery can have enormous implications, osteoporosis experts say, because there is an urgent need for osteoporosis treatments that actually build bone.
Osteoporosis affects 10 million Americans over age 50. It results in bone loss, and its hallmark is fragile bones. With one exception, current treatments only slow further bone loss rather than increase bone formation. And the exception, parathyroid hormone, given by injection, is recommended only for short-term use and costs about $6,700 a year.
But in a paper published online this week in the journal Cell, a team led by Dr. Gerard Karsenty, chairman of the department of genetics and development at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, reports the discovery of an unexpected system that appears to control bone formation.
At its heart is serotonin made by the gut rather than the brain, whose role outside the brain had been a mystery. Ninety-five percent of the body's serotonin is made by the gut, but gut serotonin cannot enter the brain because it is barred by the so-called blood-brain barrier. Read on...

The Research:
Read the research behind this story in the journal Cell.