Opioids regulate the formation of sperm: study – Research and Development

Spanish scientists have described for the first time the presence of opioids in the cells involved in the formation sperm, reported the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU).

  
 

This work, published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE and led by a researcher at the UPV (northern Spain) Nerea Subirán reveals that opioid receptors are part of different cellular communication systems and regulate physiological processes that require high degree of coordination between different types of cells and tissues.

 

“Although this is basic science research with animal models, these studies are shedding light on the molecular mechanisms that control male fertility,” said Subirán.

 

The study describes how opioid receptors involved in the production of sperm in mammals and reveals its activation regulates the formation of machinery that is responsible for the correct segregation of genetic information during spermatogenesis.

 

Opioids are cellular receptors

for neurotransmitters in the nervous system of large mammals and its existence was discovered in the seventies to the multiplicity of pharmacological responses produced by the external administration of opiates.

 

The study contributes to better understand the causes of many cases of infertility and allows “open new horizons in the development of targets and therapeutic strategies to combat it,” according to this PhD in Physiology and professor in the Department of Physiology at the UPV / EHU.

 

Source: Agencies

Tags: sperm, male fertility, sperm, sperm, opioids