Your brain talks to your skeleton, and more than you probably realize. For example, doctors have long noticed something strange about people with head injuries: Their bones heal more quickly. When certain brain cells are damaged, they release protein-filled vesicles that travel to bone stem cells and stimulate their growth. Naturally, researchers began to wonder: If damaged brains can heal bones, can bones heal damaged brains?
To find out, researchers at Southern Medical University in China flipped the script on TBI-accelerated bone growth. They artificially caused head injuries and strokes in the brains of mice and pigs. They then fitted the brain-damaged animals with electronic devices that rhythmically tapped their shins several times per second for five days.
Read more: “Your brain is shaped like no one else’s”
Remarkably, it worked. According to their study recently published in Natural neurosciencetapping reduced brain cell loss, promoted neuron growth, and relieved chronic inflammation. It also increased the survival time of both animals and improved their motor function and ability to navigate mazes, suggesting the process led to less memory loss.
The researchers attributed these effects to a relatively important protein found in bone cells called PIEZO1. This propeller-shaped protein has three spiral “blades” that curve upward around an ion channel. When pressure is applied, the blades flex and the ion channel opens, letting in positively charged signaling elements like sodium, potassium and calcium. In their tests on animals without PIEZO1, the team found none of the healing benefits of shin tapping.
It’s a bit strange, but not when you consider that bones act a bit like endocrine organs. They actively regulate mineral levels, secrete growth factor that acts on other organs, and hormones that can lower blood sugar and increase testosterone. The endocrine system works via feedback loops, so in a way it would be even stranger if the brain-bone axis only went one way.
But it’s still weird.
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Main image: Olya Art / Shutterstock
Gn Health
