Hormonal balance is critical for the proper functioning of the human body. Disruption of this balance can cause numerous health problems, such as metabolic syndrome and obesity. Resulting from an international collaboration, work from the laboratory of Dr. Jacques Drouin, Director of the Molecular Genetics Research Unit at the Montreal Clinical Research Institute (IRCM) published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), sheds light on an important element of the mechanisms underlying this balance.
“We want to understand how the exchange of signals between cells modulates gene expression, and how their disruption causes disease.” – Dr. Jacques Drouin, Research Director
The pituitary gland is central for maintenance of this balance, as it produces the main hormones that control other glands. In the pituitary, the various hormone-producing cells communicate with each other through dedicated ligands and receptors to balance production of the different hormones. Little is known about these ligands, and it is precisely one of them that the laboratory of Dr. Drouin (also a Full Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the Université de Montréal) has identified in this recent major study.
From left to right : Dr. Konstantin Khetchoumian and Kevin Sochodolsky, PhD student, from Dr. Drouin's lab
An International Collaboration
In this collaborative, multidisciplinary study involving researchers from France (Institut de génomique fonctionnelle, Montpellier), the UK (University of Edinburgh and Oxford University) and the Drouin laboratory, scientists discovered a communication mechanism between two cell types within the pituitary gland. Thus, pituitary cells that regulate stress response “talk” to neighbouring cells that secrete growth hormone. The authors found that this FGF1-mediated communication is critical for normal growth, because this factor controls the number and function of growth hormone-producing cells.
This study illustrates the functional importance of intercellular signal exchanges, but it's only the beginning: we know there are many other signals, especially exchanges between hormone-producing cells and their progenitors. The balance between all these cells is the basis of a well-functioning organism.
The IRCM group's research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
