Health News

Combining Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Technology And Genetic Correction To Treat Muscular Dystrophy

Date: Mar-08-2013
Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Lillehei Heart Institute have combined genetic repair with cellular reprogramming to generate stem cells capable of muscle regeneration in a mouse model for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)...

More Gun Laws Lead To Fewer Deaths

Date: Mar-08-2013
More gun laws in a state may lead to fewer firearm deaths from suicides and homicides. The finding came from a new study on all 50 states and was published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Each year, over 30,000 people die in the United States as a result of injuries from firearms. Previous research said that guns are more likely to be stored unsafely in homes with adolescents between the ages of 13 and 17, which may result in serious, awful accidents. The team of researchers, led by Eric W. Fleegler, M.D., M.P.H...

Biochemists Gain New Insight Into Double-Protected Dance Of Cell Division

Date: Mar-08-2013
Biochemists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst including assistant professor Peter Chien recently gained new insight into how protein synthesis and degradation help to regulate the delicate ballet of cell division. In particular, they reveal how two proteins shelter each other in "mutually assured cleanup" to insure that division goes smoothly and safely.  Cells must routinely dispose of leftover proteins with the aid of proteases that cut up and recycle used proteins...

Series Of Community Efforts Boosted HIV Testing, Helped Reduce New Infections

Date: Mar-08-2013
In Africa and Thailand, communities that worked together on HIV-prevention efforts saw not only a rise in HIV screening but a drop in new infections, according to a new study presented this week at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta. The U.S...

Neurons' Inability To Dispose Of Unwanted Proteins Likely Leads To Age-Related Dementia

Date: Mar-08-2013
A team of European scientists from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD) at the University of Cologne in Germany has taken an important step closer to understanding the root cause of age-related dementia. In research involving both worms and mice, they have found that age-related dementia is likely the result of a declining ability of neurons to dispose of unwanted aggregated proteins...

Keeping Millions Of American Women And Their Families Healthy

Date: Mar-08-2013
Women's issues play a major role in the health of the nation and should be a key consideration for policymakers as they design and set up the new insurance exchanges, according to a report co-authored by policy experts at the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS). The report offers a checklist for the state-based health insurance exchanges, one that will help ensure that women, children and family members can get the services they need to prevent costly and debilitating medical problems...

Education About Car Seat Safety Needed In Emergency Departments

Date: Mar-08-2013
Each year, more than 130,000 children younger than 13 are treated in U.S. emergency departments after motor-vehicle crash-related injuries. Each of these visits offer a chance to pass along tips for proper use of child passenger restraints, but a new study from the University of Michigan indicates emergency departments may not be taking advantage of those opportunities...

Fear Extinction Training Increased REM Sleep In Anxiety Disorders

Date: Mar-08-2013
Researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) have, for the first time, identified a specific group of cells in the brainstem whose activation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is critical for the regulation of emotional memory processing. The findings, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, could help lead to the development of effective behavioral and pharmacological therapies to treat anxiety disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, phobias and panic attacks...

Physicists Probe Stress-Induced Changes In Clot-Forming Protein

Date: Mar-08-2013
New research from Rice University, Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) and the Puget Sound Blood Center (PSBC) has revealed how stresses of flow in the small blood vessels of the heart and brain could cause a common protein to change shape and form dangerous blood clots. The scientists were surprised to find that the proteins could remain in the dangerous, clot-initiating shape for up to five hours before returning to their normal, healthy shape. The study -- the first of its kind -- focused on a protein called von Willebrand factor, or VWF, a key player in clot formation...

Focal Laser Ablation Offers Another Option For Some Prostate Cancer Patients

Date: Mar-08-2013
Men with low-risk prostate cancer who previously had to choose between aggressive treatment, with the potential for significant side effects, and active surveillance, with the risk of disease progression, may have a new option. Focal laser ablation uses precisely targeted heat, delivered through a small insertion and guided into the prostate by magnetic resonance imaging, to burn away cancerous cells in the prostate...