Can A "Kiss" Restore Fertility?

A study presented at the annual meeting for the Society for Endocrinology reported on a potential fertility therapy for women with low sex hormone levels. The small study included ten women who were not menstruating due to a hormone imbalance. The researchers gave half of the women injections of a hormone called kisspeptin. Kisspeptin, the small hormone that is associated with the initiation of puberty, also plays a vital role in the brain to trigger ovulation. The signaling between kisspeptin and its cell receptor GPR54 is essential to activate gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, the nerve cells involved in the initiation of ovulation. The women who received kisspeptin had a 48-fold increase in LH and a 16-fold increase in FSH compared to the women in the control group. Study author Dr. Waljit Dhillo stated, "This is a very exciting result and suggests that kisspeptin treatment could restore reproductive function in women with low sex hormone levels. Our future research will focus on determining the best protocol for repeated kisspeptin administration with the hope of developing a new therapy for infertility."

And it is just a coincidence that the name kisspeptin is associated with fertility. Scientists in Hershey, PA discovered the gene and named it after the popular candy Hershey's Kisses.