A specific receptor in the brain may explain why humans are growing taller and reaching puberty at an earlier age, according to new research.
on Wednesday, academics from the University of Cambridge in the U.K., as well as teams from several other universities in the U.K. and the U.S., said average height increased by about 10 cm in the U.K., and up to 20 cm in other countries during the 20th century.
The first one, which is known as the melanocortin 4 receptor , has previously been shown to regulate appetite and a lack of the receptor can result in obesity. To arrive at this finding, scientists searched through the genetic information of half a million volunteers that is stored in the U.K. Biobank – a large database of genetic and health information – to find people with naturally occurring genetic mutations that disrupt the function of the MC3R.
They found six children with mutations in MC3R and they were all shorter and had a lower lean mass and weight throughout childhood than their peers, which shows the effect of the mutations starts early in life. “Identifying the pathway in the brain whereby nutrition turns into growth and puberty explains a global phenomenon of increasing height and decreasing age at puberty that has puzzled scientists for a century.”
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