Monday, March 9, 2009

Block 4 Assignment

Look at a specific human hormone. Describe the structure (chemical structure and composition), functions in the body and possible medical applications. You will need to specify what amino acids make up the hormone. Please also describe what would happen if there is too much or too little of that hormone in the body.
This will consist of 3-4 paragraphs IN YOUR OWN WORDS and also you must submit links to at least two sources of where you found your information.

This assignment is due on Friday. For those of you who check out when you leave the classroom, use your time wisely today in the computer lab.

4 comments:

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  2. Testosterone is a steroid hormone found in males and females, but found more in males. Testosterone is found mostly in the testes of males and the ovaries of females. In men testosterone has a huge role in health, well-being, and in osteoporosis. Some drugs specifically target testosterone as a way of treating certain conditions. Testosterone may be administered to an athlete in order to improve performance, and is illegal and called “doping” in most sports. Like other steroid hormones, testosterone comes from cholesterol. The largest amounts of testosterone are produced by the testicles in males. In the testicles, testosterone is produced by the Leydig cells. Women who take Estratest, a combination pill with estrogen and methyltestosterone, had a very much higher risk of breast cancer. One effect that many men complain of is the development of breasts.



    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Testosterone

    http://jcem.endojournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/88/1/358

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  4. Nancy Resendiz
    Block 4
    3/18/09
    Collagen

    Collagen is one of the various amounts of proteins that help our body be able to properly function. In fact, I can actually say that collagen protein is one of the most plentiful proteins present in the bodies of mammals, including humans. By being fibrous in nature, it connects and supports other bodily tissues, such as skin, bone, tendons, muscles, and cartilage. It also supports the internal organs and is even present in teeth. There are more than 25 types of collagens that naturally occur in the body. Collagen also makes up about 25 percent of the total amount of proteins in the body. Many people have referred collagen as the glue that holds the body together. If we didn’t have any collagen the body would pretty much literally fall apart.
    Collagen works hand-in-hand with elastin in supporting the body’s tissues. What it pretty much do is that it gives body tissues form and provides firmness and strength. This combination of collagen and elastin is very important in many parts of the body including the lungs, bones, tendons and blood vessles. It also is known to work with keratin to provide the skin with strength, flexibility, and resilience. Cosmetic surgery uses collagen a lot for their medical procedures regarding skin care and joint mobility supplements. It is even used in treating and managing serious burns. For this purpose, it is used in creating man-made skin substitutes.
    This protein was actually discovered by scientists in the 1930s and had been studied for a long time looking for the structure that it had possessed. The scientists found out that it had a regular structure at the molecular level. The collagen molecule or “tropocollagen” is a subunit of a larger collagen made up of peptide strands. A distinctive feature of collagen is the regular arrangement of amino acids in each of the three chains of these collagen subunits. The amino acids that make up the molecule of collagen include Glycine, Proline, Hydroxyproline, and Hydroxylysine. The sequence often follows the pattern Gly-Pro-Y or Gly-X-Hyp, where X and Y may be any of various other amino acid residues.
    After researching more on the subject of the possible synthetic version of the peptide I was able to find that there are new discoveries coming out from scientists on this matter. There are new information about the way to have the ability of synthesizing collagen. After working hard for the equivalent of 30 years scientists have finally made a big breakthrough. A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison recently reported in the that they have discovered a method for making human collagen in the lab. This is quite a remarkable discovery that allows scientists to have more flexibility, control and versatility over the final form of collagen. It could be used as "solder" to speed the healing of large wounds and could have applications in the field of nanotechnology. Human collagen coated with gold or silver and a specific biological molecule could alert diabetics to falling insulin levels, or detect harmful pathogens.
    Overall the protein called collagen is a very useful part of our body that helps our body stay together and function properly. There have been magnificent discoveries made about it throughout the years that help us try to understand more and more about how it works and how we can synthesize it. It uses various amino acids in its structure’s sequence. It has been useful in the medical field as far as the discoveries in curing for some in cosmetology surgery wrinkles and other skin problems such as burns. It is an important protein which continues to function in our body everyday and keeps us held together in place, as it actually acts as a glue by its strength and flexibility.

    http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/
    www.skinsite.com/info_collagen_injections.htm

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