It has since long been suggested that androgen receptor changes are at the origin of the polycystic ovary syndrome (PCO), which affects about 7 % of fertile women and is a major cause for infertility; good proof, however, has been lacking. Wang and colleagues from the Hangzhou University in China have now presented in PNAS from April 15 this year a convincing report that alternative splice variants (ASV) occur in women with PCO but not in those without. 

Alternative splicing occurs when there are several acceptor sites for the RNA lariat during splicing, where the introns are excised from the heteronuclear RNA and the RNA is cut to the messenger RNA. Or there are mutations at the sites supposed to be brought together that the splicing mechanism can no longer work.

It is very suggestive that the ASV occuring in the androgen receptor are causative for the disease. It is very much supprising that this finding has taken so much time to be discovered. This lets one think about lack of basic scientific knowlege in the medical community at large. It should be necessary to have scientists advisors assisting medical researchers not beeing able to look beyond their own nose.

An important paper and a must.