Happy Valentine’s Day!
It’s a day to embrace all the joy that love brings to life.
A day to pause and reflect on the mystery of love …and biomarkers.
Love and biomarkers? Absolutely! Love is so hard to describe in words.
People try with different languages, metaphors, imagery, poems, songs,
and increasingly, with molecules – the words of biology. For example,
the neurotransmitter hormone molecule in the picture above is oxytocin.
Oxytocin research has led it to be called the “love hormone”
because oxytocin levels in people’s blood rise with romantic love.
Differences in the genes controlling oxytocin receptors on cells
have been reported to affect early romantic relationships. Now,
oxytocin doesn’t make people fall in love, but it’s a love biomarker.
But just one. Love is far more complex than just this one molecule.
Falling in love changes the genetic regulation of the immune system.
Love shows up in molecules throughout your body and in your blood.
Scientists might not ever explain love, but may learn how to measure it
with biomarkers. The Dupuytren Research Group is doing the same for
Dupuytren disease with the Dupuytren Blood Biomarker Research study,
developing a biomarker profile – a Dupuytren blood test – to be able to
measure it, predict it, and – unlike scientists studying love – find a cure.
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Charles Eaton MD
