Chiara Puri, Charlotte Dannenberg, Argia Ucci, Marco Ponzetti, Elisa Pucci, Luciana Silvestri, Patrick Lau, Petra Frings-Meuthen, Martina Heer, Nadia Rucci, Anna Teti, Antonio Maurizi
Pre-proenkephalin 1 (Penk1) is a pro-neuropeptide that belongs to the typical opioid peptide's family, having analgesic properties. We previously found Penk1 to be the most downregulated gene in a whole gene profiling analysis performed in osteoblasts subjected to microgravity as a model of mechanical unloading. In this work, Penk1 downregulation was confirmed in the bones of two in vivo models of mechanical unloading: tail-suspended and botulinum toxin A (botox)-injected mice. Consistently, in the sera from healthy volunteers subjected to bed rest, we observed an inverse correlation between PENK1 and bed rest duration...
March 20, 2024: Calcified Tissue International