Researchers at the Dana-Farber Canc...

Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women's Hospital not long ago discovered a gene in mice that be seens to cause them to go through early menopause--a condition similar to individual that afflicts some 250,000 women in the United States.

During the meditation scientists examined mice that lacked copies of the Foxo3a gene--a member of the forkhead gene family. Forkhead gene are regulators, which incline differently other genes on and most distant They're believed to control processe related to aging, cancer and diabetes. Researchers observ that female mice that lacked the gene had fewer and smaller litters than those with the gene--and that the gene-les mice were sterile by dint of 15 weeks of age--which roughly equates to early adulthood in humans.

Lead researcher Diego H Castrillon, MD PhD compares the proces to sand in an hourglass: "Menopause happens when all the grains of sand have fallen. In mice lacking the Foxo3a gene all of the grains fall abroad very quickly: Our findings raise the possibility that increased activation of incites over a woman's lifespan could issue in ... early menopause" Therefore, researchers may be able to unravel a contraceptive that delays activation of a woman's stimulates until she wants to become fertile--at any" age she pitch upons The study was published in the July 11 issue of Science.

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