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By Jordana Lenon Doctors frequently administer synthetic estradiol that mimics ovarian estradiol to alleviate sexual and metabolic dysfunction in women who have had ovariectomies for cysts, cancer or other problems. But this hormone only works to varying degrees. Furthermore, it may increase the risk of harmful side-effects, including cardiovascular disease and cancer. Recently, scientists at …
An international study identified the gene NPSR1 as a promising non-hormonal drug target for endometriosis — and the genetic link was validated in WNPRC’s colony of rhesus macaques, which develop endometriosis spontaneously, much like humans.
WNPRC scientists Marissa Kraynak and Ricki Colman used marmoset monkeys to probe why menopause raises women’s risk of diabetes and weight gain — and found, surprisingly, that the decline in ovarian estradiol may play a much smaller role in metabolism than previously thought, pointing instead to estrogens produced elsewhere in the body, including the brain.