Health News

1 In 4 Melanoma Survivors Still Skips Sunscreen

Date: Apr-09-2013
Results of a US survey presented at a conference on Monday suggest that as many as 27% of melanoma survivors still forego wearing sunscreen, while 2% continue to use tanning beds. Going out in the sun without protection and using indoor tanning beds are both known to increase the risk of developing melanoma, the most serious and life-threatening form of skin cancer...

How Stress Circuits Learn

Date: Apr-09-2013
Researchers at the University of Calgary's Hotchkiss Brain Institute have discovered that stress circuits in the brain undergo profound learning early in life. Using a number of cutting edge approaches, including optogenetics, Jaideep Bains, PhD, and colleagues have shown stress circuits are capable of self-tuning following a single stress. These findings demonstrate that the brain uses stress experience during early life to prepare and optimize for subsequent challenges...

Genome Wide Study Identifies Genetic Variants Associated With Childhood Obesity

Date: Apr-09-2013
Researchers have identified four genes newly associated with severe childhood obesity. They also found an increased burden of rare structural variations in severely obese children. The team found that structural variations can delete sections of DNA that help to maintain protein receptors known to be involved in the regulation of weight. These receptors are promising targets for the development of new drugs against obesity. As one of the major health issues affecting modern societies, obesity has increasingly received public attention...

In Zebrafish Embryo, Retinoic Acid Gradient Visualized For The First Time

Date: Apr-09-2013
In a ground-breaking study, researchers from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan report a new technique that allows them to visualize the distribution of retinoic acid in a live zebrafish embryo, in real-time. This technique enabled them to observe two concentration gradients going in opposing directions along the head-to-tail axis of the embryo, thus providing long-awaited evidence that retinoic acid is a morphogen...

Sticky Signature: Separation Of Stem Cells Enabled By Adhesive Force Differences

Date: Apr-09-2013
A new separation process that depends on an easily-distinguished physical difference in adhesive forces among cells could help expand production of stem cells generated through cell reprogramming. By facilitating new research, the separation process could also lead to improvements in the reprogramming technique itself and help scientists model certain disease processes. The reprogramming technique allows a small percentage of cells - often taken from the skin or blood - to become human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) capable of producing a wide range of other cell types...

Muscle Metabolism And Diabetes

Date: Apr-09-2013
Researchers in the Life Sciences Institute at the University of Michigan have challenged a long-held belief that whitening of skeletal muscle in diabetes is harmful. In fact, the white muscle that increases with resistance training, age and diabetes helps keep blood sugar in check, the researchers showed. In addition, the insights from the molecular pathways involved in this phenomenon and identified in the study may point the way to potential drug targets for obesity and metabolic disease...

Worldwide The Burden Of Dengue Is Triple Current Estimates

Date: Apr-09-2013
The global burden of dengue infection is more than triple current estimates from the World Health Organization, according to a multinational study published in the journal Nature. The research has created the first detailed and up-to-date map of dengue distribution worldwide, enabling researchers to estimate the total numbers of people affected by the virus globally, regionally and nationally. The findings will help to guide efforts in vaccine, drug and vector control strategies...

News From Annals Of Internal Medicine: Apr. 9 2013

Date: Apr-09-2013
1. American College of Physicians Releases Recommendations for Prostate Cancer Screening: Shared Decision-Making, Clear Patient Preference Recommended Before PSA Testing Men between the ages of 50 and 69 should discuss the limited benefits and substantial harms of the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test with their doctor before undergoing screening for prostate cancer, according to new recommendations by the American College of Physicians (ACP). Only men between the ages of 50 and 69 who express a clear preference for screening should have the PSA test...

Patient Navigators Credited For High Rate Of Follow Up Following High-Risk Breast Cancer Screening

Date: Apr-09-2013
Low-income and minority women screened for breast cancer at Capital Breast Cancer Center (CBCC) in Washington, DC, exceed national standards in their rate of medical follow-up after a positive mammogram, according to a small study presented at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2013. Researchers credit CBCC patient navigators with playing a key role in ensuring high follow-up rates...

Transcription Factors Identified That Regulate Retinal Vascularization

Date: Apr-09-2013
The retina is a highly vascularized tissue, but too much or too little vascularization can lead to visual impairment and diseases such as familial exudative vitreoretinopathy or macular degeneration. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Alfred Nordheim and colleagues at Tuebingen University in Tuebingen, Germany, identified the DNA transcription factor SRF and its cofactors MRTF-A and MRTF-B as critical regulators of vascularization in the postnatal mouse eye...