Genes may provide some clues to the variation in the age at which a woman gets her first and last menstrual period according to five independent studies published online in Nature Genetics .
Reproductive lifespan is a fundamental mystery of the aging body and these two landmark events of the biological clock are powerful predictors of health outcomes such as personal lifetime risks of breast cancer and osteoporosis. These studies find that the timing contribution of each gene variant identified was small relative to the range naturally found among women, but some of the same variants are also found associated with height and body weight. The onset of puberty in particular is also strongly influenced by environmental factors such as nutrition and athletic training and this research provides new ways to investigate how these characteristics influence one another. Author contacts: Ken Ong (University of Cambridge, UK) Author paper [1]
E-mail: ken.ong@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk Ruth Loos (University of Cambridge, UK) Author paper [1]
E-mail: ruth.loos@mrc-epid.cam.ac.uk Patrick Sulem (deCODE Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland) Author paper [2]
E-mail: patrick.sulem@decode.is Chunyan He (Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA) Author paper [3]
E-mail: che@hsph.harvard.edu Andre Uitterlinden (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) Author paper [4] & [5]
E-mail: a.g.uitterlinden@erasmusmc.nl Abstracts available online:
Abstract of Paper 1.
Abstract of Paper 2.
Abstract of Paper 3.
Abstract of Paper 4.
Abstract of Paper 5. C) Nature Genetics press release.
Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza
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