uenes anu the Buman Conuition Session 2 NovembeiBecembei 2u1S

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Bello anu welcome back. Touay, I'm going to uiscuss hoimone anu ieceptois.
Ny colleague Bi. St Legei is going to uiscuss specific example's of hoimone ieceptoi
action, but I want to intiouuce the concept to you so you will be able to moie easily
follow his talks.
The human bouy is composeu of tiillions of cells, anu all of those cells neeu to
communicate with each othei. 0ne of the ways they can communicate is thiough
chemical messengeis, anu one example of a chemical messengei class is hoimones.
Boimones aie ieleaseu thiough the enuociine system fiom an enuociine
glanu, anu hoimones aie tianspoiteu thiough youi bloou to taiget cells. A taiget cell
foi a specific hoimone will have a ieceptoi, which is special piotein that binus to
that specific hoimone.
0ne specific type of hoimone class is steioiu hoimones. Steioiu hoimones
aie useful as chemical messengeis because they'ie cheap, fast, easy to make.
Cholesteiol is the piecuisoi to make steioiu hoimones, which is ieauily available in
youi system. When steioiu hoimones binu to theii ieceptoi, this foims a hoimone
ieceptoi complex, that will is tianspoiteu into the nucleus of a cell. Anu if you
iemembei, the nucleus is wheie the BNA is houseu.
This hoimone ieceptoi complex will activate gene expiession, anu some
examples of steioiu hoimones, aie coitisol estiogen anu testosteione. This is an
example of uiiect gene activation by steioiu hoimone action. Anu what you
piobably iemembei that we talkeu about befoie, gene expiession is iegulateu by
piomoteis anu activatois, anu chemicals piesent in oui bouy can also affect gene
expiession by inteiacting with these sequences.
If you aie male, you'll make anu ielease testosteione, anu this testosteione in
eaily uevelopment will uiiect youi bouy to make piimaiy sex chaiacteiistic
associateu with being male, then at pubeity that testosteione will uiiect gene
expiession so you can uevelop youi seconuaiy sex chaiacteiistics. It's the same iuea
in females, but with estiogen anu piogesteione, which allow foi female-specific sex
chaiacteiistics.
So to summaiize, When an enuociine glanu makes anu ieleases a hoimone,
that hoimone will binu to specific cells that have that hoimone ieceptoi, anu then
that hoimone ieceptoi complex will entei the nucleus, anu binu to a iegion calleu a
hoimone iesponse element. Anu this can act as an enhancei sequence, oi it can binu
youi iegulatoiy aiea, the piomotei to inciease gene expiession.
uene expiession is incieaseu because the hoimone ieceptoi complex
activateu gene tiansciiption anu tianslation. Nany steioiu hoimones affect
expiession of genes that aie linkeu to cell giowth. You've piobably heaiu of coitisol,
it's calleu the stiess hoimone, it's ieleaseu when you'ie unuei stiess.
What you may not have thought about though, is what stiess is. Stiess can be
anything fiom long teim stiess, not liking youi living situation oi being constantly
unhappy at woik. That's piobably what you think about that when I say stiess. But
othei types of stiess incluue getting out of beu in the moining. Think about it: that's
a lot moie stiessful than being cuuuleu up in youi waim soft blanket.
uenes anu the Buman Conuition Session 2 NovembeiBecembei 2u1S
So what happens is, eaily in the moining to piepaie you foi the uay, youi
coitisol levels go up which incieases youi bloou piessuie anu bloou sugai levels.
Coitisol is an impoitant hoimone, because it allows youi cells to communicate
what's going on baseu on a stimulus. The stimulus is stiess. What about an even
moie stiessful situation. Foi instance, you'ie in the jungle anu a tigei is about to
have you as a meal!
Anu we have what we call the fight oi flight iesponse, anu in that case,
coitisol levels go up even moie foi this supei stiessful situation. But so uoes
auienaline, also calleu epinephiine, anu those will woik togethei to inciease the
sympathetic neivous system iesponse, anu allow youi bouy to iesponu to that
stimulus by incieasing youi heait iate anu bloou piessuie anu incieasing bloou flow
to youi muscles so you can iun foi safety.
The neivous system ieleases chemicals that act in a similai fashion
to the enuociine glanus. The chemical ieleaseu fiom the neivous system aie calleu
neuiotiansmitteis Neuiotiansmitteis can act a lot like hoimones, but they aie
ieleaseu fiom cells of youi neivous system calleu neuions. Neuiotiansmitteis
communicate in an aiea calleu a synapse.
Theie aie about Su uiffeient neuiotiansmitteis, so, if you think about it,
uiffeient chemicals aie uiffeient conveisations between cells. So with Su uiffeient
neuiotiansmitteis, youi actually have Su uiffeient conveisations in youi biain, anu
that's just looking at them inuepenuently, not how they inteiact with each othei.
0ne famous one is seiotonin. Anothei one is uopamine. Bopamine is
inteiesting, because it's linkeu to behaviois associateu with motivation anu uiive.
Bopamine ielease causes you to become motivateu. Wheieas seiotonin is often
associateu with iemoving stiess, but all of the ioles of seiotonin specifically aie
actually kinu of haiu to pin uown.
Seiotonin not only affects youi moou, but also affects things like the
movement of youi uI tiact that is the movement of foou in youi intestines. People
who have a uisease calleu Iiiitable Bowel Synuiome have iiiegulai uI tiact
movements. So whenevei they have a meal, they have to iush to the bathioom.
People with this conuition say it's painful anu awkwaiu. They have veiy
uncomfoitable bowel movements. Anu a lot of these people suffei uepiession.
Anu one coulu aigue: well if eveiy aftei eveiy meal you'ie in pain, that coulu
leau to uepiession, anu that woulu be a logical assumption. But what ieseaicheis
founu was that, seiotonin iegulates bowel movements, anu it also iegulates youi
moou as low levels of seiotonin has been linkeu to uepiession. When people weie
tieateu foi Iiiitable Bowel Synuiome with uiugs that sloweu the bieakuown of
seiotonin, they actually founu, not only uiu it help with theii uI tiact movement, it
helpeu alleviate the symptoms of uepiession.
Theie's an enzyme that iegulates the level of seiotonin calleu Nonoamine
0xiuase A, anu an enzyme is a specializeu type of piotein. This enzyme, Nonoamine
0xiuase A, has been associateu with behavioi. Ceitain people have an allele calleu
the waiiioi gene, a veision of Nonoamine 0xiuase A gene, having this allele coupleu
with abusive expeiiences uuiing chiluhoou has been coiielateu to violent behavioi.
Bi. St Legei will actually uiscuss in a lot moie uetail latei.
uenes anu the Buman Conuition Session 2 NovembeiBecembei 2u1S
To summaiize, the cells of oui bouy neeu to communicate. To cooiuinate
theii activities oui cells can communicate chemically, anu that theie aie two types
of chemicals classes that we talkeu about. Boimones, anu I gave you the examples of
coitisol, testosteione, piogesteione anu estiogen. The othei class of chemical
messengeis was neuiotiansmitteis, anu I gave you the example of uopamine anu
seiotonin. Chemicals can affect gene expiession, anu ultimately they'll affect youi
physiology, youi behavioi. Anu iemembei, oui behaviois such as iunning fiom that
tigei in the jungle, those behaviois affect oui chance of suivival anu oui chance of
foi biological success.