Depression, osteoporosis, serotonin and cell membrane viscosity between biology and philosophical anthropology

• Main Authors: Gabrielli Fabio, Tonello Lucio, Cocchi Massimo, Pregnolato Massimo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2011-03-01
• Series: Annals of General Psychiatry
• Online Access: http://www.annals-general-psychiatry.com/content/10/1/9

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Due to the relationship between biology and culture, we believe that depression, understood as a cultural and existential phenomenon, has clear markers in molecular biology. We begin from an existential analysis of depression constituting the human condition and then shift to analysis of biological data confirming, according to our judgment, its original (ontological) structure. In this way philosophy is involved at the anthropological level, in as much as it detects the underlying meanings of depression in the original biological-cultural horizon of human life. Considering the integration of knowledge it is the task of molecular biology to identify the aforementioned markers, to which the existential aspects of depression are linked to. In particular, recent works show the existence of a link between serotonin and osteoporosis as a result of a modified expression of the low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 5 gene. Moreover, it is believed that the hereditary or acquired involvement of tryptophan hydroxylase 2 (Tph2) or 5-hydroxytryptamine transporter (5-HTT) is responsible for the reduced concentration of serotonin in the central nervous system, causing depression and affective disorders. This work studies the depression-osteoporosis relationship, with the aim of focusing on depressive disorders that concern the quantitative dynamic of platelet membrane viscosity and interactome cytoskeleton modifications (in particular Tubulin and Gsα protein) as a possible condition of the involvement of the serotonin axis (gut, brain and platelet), not only in depression but also in connection with osteoporosis.</p>