Health News

Researchers adapt microscopic technology for bionic body parts and other medical devices

Date: Aug-09-2013
Tiny sensors and motors are everywhere, telling your smartphone screen to rotate and your camera to focus. Now, a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University has found a way to print biocompatible components for these micro-machines, making them ideal for use in medical devices, like bionic arms. Microelectromechanical systems, better known as MEMS, are usually produced from silicon. The innovation of the TAU researchers - engineering doctoral candidates Leeya Engel and Jenny Shklovsky under the supervision of Prof...

Moderate exercise could be good for keeping your tendons healthy

Date: Aug-09-2013
The onset of tendon disease has previously been associated with exercise. However new research published in the journal Molecular Cell Research shows that doing moderate exercise could help guard against and treat the painful and often debilitating condition. The research team showed that moving around decreases a group of enzymes (metalloproteinases) that degrade tendon tissue and increase tendon protein. Tendon disease is caused by damage to a tendon at cellular level. Symptoms include chronic pain, inflammation, stiffness and reduced function...

Endovascular treatment for stroke; Supply of neurosurgeons; Obesity's effects on outcomes of subarachnoid hemorrhage

Date: Aug-09-2013
Despite recent discouraging results, endovascular treatment is still a "reasonable" treatment option for selected patients with acute stroke, according to a commentary in the August issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health...

Tiny bendy power supply for implantable medical devices, other small portable electronics

Date: Aug-09-2013
Scientists have created a powerful micro-supercapacitor, just nanometres thick, that could help electronics companies develop mobile phones and cameras that are smaller, lighter and thinner than ever before. The tiny power supply measures less than half a centimetre across and is made from a flexible material, opening up the possibility for wearable electronics. The research is published in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Energy & Environmental Science...

Research could lead to targeted treatment that kills only cancerous cells

Date: Aug-09-2013
Researchers at Warwick Medical School have identified the key role played by a team of proteins in the process of mitosis. Working out how to control them may give scientists a way to destroy cancerous cells. The study, published in The Journal of Cell Biology, highlights the role of a newly identified team of proteins, TACC3-ch-TOG-clathrin, in forming inter-microtubule bridges that stabilise the kinetochore fibres (K-fibres) used in mitosis. When a cell divides, it produces a mitotic spindle which then makes sure that the chromosomes are divided equally between the two new cells...

Fitness facilities more likely to have AEDs which improve survival odds following sudden cardiac arrest

Date: Aug-09-2013
People experiencing sudden cardiac arrest at exercise facilities have a higher chance of survival than at other indoor locations, likely due to early CPR and access to an automated external defibrillator (AED), among other factors, according to a study published online today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The findings underscore the importance of having AEDs in places where people exert themselves and are at greater risk of sudden cardiac arrest...

Research reveals short-term gene-expression "memory" inherited in proteins associated with DNA

Date: Aug-09-2013
By studying a gene in yeast, a team of scientists has found that modifications to histones - proteins associated with DNA - can control whether or not a gene is allowed to function and may be important in maintaining the genes' "expression potential" so that future cells behave as their parent cells did. The research was led by Lu Bai, an assistant professor of biochemistry, molecular biology, and physics at Penn State University, in collaboration with David Stillman at the University of Utah...

Discovery of mechanism underlying cisplatin-induced ototoxicity

Date: Aug-09-2013
Studies have shown that calpain participates in gentamicin-, neomycin- and kanamycin-induced inner ear cell apoptosis. Cisplatin has been shown to be an anticancer drug. However, cisplatin can lead to severe ototoxicity, induce cochlear cell apoptosis, and result in hearing decrease or loss, which limits the application of cisplatin in a clinical setting to a certain degree. A recent study by Liang Chang and colleagues from Jinzhou Central Hospital established a BALB/c mouse model of cisplatin-induced ototoxicity to detect the susceptibility to cisplatin-induced ototoxicity...

Novel caffeine detection kit

Date: Aug-09-2013
A team of researchers led by Prof. Young-Tae Chang from National University of Singapore and Prof. Yoon-Kyoung Cho from Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea, developed a fluorescent caffeine detector and a detection kit that lights up like a traffic light when caffeine is present in various drinks and solutions. The research work was published recently in Scientific Reports (Nature Publishing Group). Caffeine drinks are ubiquitous and it would be unimaginable for many of us to go a day without caffeine...

Harmful, hidden toxins in the diets of pregnant women

Date: Aug-09-2013
UC Riverside study suggests that prenatal health care professionals do more to advise patients to avoid tap water, certain types of fish, caffeine, and canned goods that may put developing babies at risk. Pregnant women regularly consume food and beverages containing toxins believed to pose potential risks to developing fetuses, according to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, suggesting that health care providers must do more to counsel their patients about the dangers of hidden toxins in the food supply...