Health News

Study Using Cells Forged From Human Skin Shows Promise In Treating MS, Myelin Disorders

Date: Feb-11-2013
A study out today in the journal Cell Stem Cell shows that human brain cells created by reprogramming skin cells are highly effective in treating myelin disorders, a family of diseases that includes multiple sclerosis and rare childhood disorders called pediatric leukodystrophies. The study is the first successful attempt to employ human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) to produce a population of cells that are critical to neural signaling in the brain. In this instance, the researchers utilized cells crafted from human skin and transplanted them into animal models of myelin disease...

'Bad' Gut Bacteria May Help Control Diabetes

Date: Feb-10-2013
A stomach bacterium believed to cause health problems such as gastritis, ulcers, and gastric cancer may play a dual role by balancing the stomach's ecosystem and controlling body weight and glucose tolerance, according to immunologists at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute of Virginia Tech. Usually the villain in studies of gastric cancer and peptic ulcers, Helicobacter pylori infect about half of the world's population although most infected individuals don't get sick. The bacterium's dwindling numbers coincide with the epidemic of obesity and diabetes in developed countries. "H...

Nanoscale Vehicle Created To Battle Cancer Without Harming Healthy Cells

Date: Feb-10-2013
Devising a method for more precise and less invasive treatment of cancer tumors, a team led by researchers from the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science has developed a degradable nanoscale shell to carry proteins to cancer cells and stunt the growth of tumors without damaging healthy cells...

Drugs Can Turn Repulsive Feelings Into Desires

Date: Feb-10-2013
Hunger, thirst, stress and drugs can create a change in the brain that transforms a repulsive feeling into a strong positive "wanting," a new University of Michigan study indicates. The research used salt appetite to show how powerful natural mechanisms of brain desires can instantly transform a cue that always predicted a repulsive Dead Sea Salt solution into an eagerly wanted beacon or motivational magnet...

PhD Thesis: Study Of Some Of The Mechanisms Involved In Resistance To The Bacteria Salmonella

Date: Feb-10-2013
In their natural environment bacteria develop by forming communities of micro-organisms called biofilms that afford them greater resistance.These biofilms on farms and premises where food is processed lead to considerable economic losses besides being a potential source of contamination and transmission of the pathogen. In her PhD thesis,VioletaZorraquino-Salvo has studied a specific protein type that activates the formation of biofilm in Salmonella and regulates bacterial motility...

Lancelets Offer Insight Into Human Biological Clocks

Date: Feb-10-2013
Among the animals that are appealing "cover models" for scientific journals, lancelets don't spring readily to mind. Slender, limbless, primitive blobs that look pretty much the same end to end, lancelets "are extremely boring. I wouldn't recommend them for a home aquarium," says Enrico Nasi, adjunct senior scientist in the MBL's Cellular Dynamics Program. Yet Nasi and his collaborators managed to land a lancelet on the cover of The Journal of Neuroscience last December. These simple chordates, they discovered, offer insight into our own biological clocks...

In Very-Low-Birth-Weight Infants, Breast Milk Reduces Intensive Care Costs And Risk Of Sepsis

Date: Feb-10-2013
Feeding human breast milk to very-low-birth-weight infants greatly reduces risk for sepsis and significantly lowers associated neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) costs, according to a study by Rush University Medical Center researchers. The study, published in the advance online version of the Journal of Perinatology, showed that every 10 milliliters of human milk per kilogram that a very low birth weight infant received during the first 28 days of life decreased the odds of sepsis by almost 20 percent. A daily dose of 25 to 49...

Binge Drinking Increases With Lower Drinking Ages

Date: Feb-10-2013
People who grew up in states where it was legal to drink alcohol before age 21 are more likely to be binge drinkers later in life, according to a study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings are available online in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. The researchers tracked the long-term drinking behavior of more than 39,000 people who began consuming alcohol in the 1970s, when some states had legal drinking ages as low as 18...

As Global Economic Troubles Continue, Cuts In Global Health Funding May Signal Conclusion Of An Era Of Rapid Growth

Date: Feb-10-2013
Despite dire predictions in the wake of the economic crisis, donations to health projects in developing countries appear to be holding steady, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. After reaching a historic high of $28.2 billion in 2010, development assistance for health dropped in 2011 and recovered in 2012. The strong growth in spending from the GAVI Alliance and UNICEF counterbalanced declines in health spending among other donors...

Dialysis Patients May Be Protected From Sudden Cardiac Death By Fish Oil

Date: Feb-10-2013
Medical literature long has touted the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids for the heart. But until now, researchers have not studied the potential benefit for people on hemodialysis, who are among the highest-risk patients for sudden cardiac death. A study published online in the journal Kidney International, which included 100 patients who died of sudden cardiac death during their first year of hemodialysis and 300 patients who survived, is the first to examine this question. Allon N. Friedman, M.D...