Could loss of a hormone drive colon cancer? - Medical News Today

A new study suggests that colon cells may become cancerous when they lose the ability to produce a hormone essential for maintaining their normal biology. If this finding is verified in subsequent studies, then colon cancer will be distinct as the only cancer driven by the lack of a hormone.diagram showing the colon
If the signals that replenish the skin of the gut are unable to maintain cell division, then it becomes more likely that cell division will be irregular and lead to cancer.

The research was conducted by a team at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, and they publish their findings in the journal Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention.

Colon cancer samples were taken from 281 patients and compared with non-cancerous colon tissue from the same patients.

The researchers found that production of the hormone guanylin was decreased by 100-1,000 times in 85% of the colon cancers tested.

Fall is in the Air: DNA Methylation Regulates Seasonal Hormonal Changes in Hamsters. |EpiBeat

Ah the fall…the leaves are changing color, you can feel a chill in the air, the days are getting shorter, and your libido is decreasing…wait, what?!?  Well, maybe not in humans, but seasonal changes that affect the length of day, or photoperiod, can have a profound effect on reproductive behavior and hormone expression in seasonal breeding vertebrates, such as hamsters.  The question of whether or not epigenetic changes can occur in response to shifting photoperiods is still relatively unknown.  A recent study conducted by Dr.  Stevenson and Dr. Prendergast from the University of Chicago reported that different photoperiods were associated with epigenetic changes not only in the DNA methylation status of a hypothalamic-derived enzyme, but in the expression of DNA methyltransferases as well.

Small Things Considered: The Road to Microbial Endocrinology

Microbes ae affected hy the host's endocrine system.