专家称，在人类体内最新发现一种荷尔蒙，可能将有助于研发男性避孕药。

    A new human sex hormone has been found, according to a recent Research appeared on December 22 in the journal PLoS One. The naturally occurring substance could lead to the long-sought male birth control pill, researchers cautiously speculate.

    Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) -- first identified in birds about a decade ago -- was recently discovered in the hypothalamus of the human brain. The hypothalamus produces hormones that regulate sleep, sex drive, body temperature, among other functions.

    GnIH suppresses the hormone GnRH, which spurs the release of additional hormones that prime the body for sex and reproduction. Scientists cautiously suggested that contraceptives based on the newfound hormone could someday be possible. “That is an idea we’ve toyed with,” said study co-author George Bentley, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley, but “we don’t know enough about it yet.” 

    GnIH has been known in animals since 2000. It was known that humans have a GnIH gene but, until now, it was a mystery whether humans actually produce the hormone and what its role is. The researchers, however, extracted GnIH from five human hypthalumuses and proved that it affected nerve cells that produce GnRH, the fertility-boosting hormone.