Health News

How Early Social Deprivation Impairs Long-Term Cognitive Function

Date: Sep-17-2012
A growing body of research shows that children who suffer severe neglect and social isolation have cognitive and social impairments as adults. A study from Boston Children's Hospital shows, for the first time, how these functional impairments arise: Social isolation during early life prevents the cells that make up the brain's white matter from maturing and producing the right amount of myelin, the fatty "insulation" on nerve fibers that helps them transmit long-distance messages within the brain...

Study Explains Decrease In Insulin-Producing Beta Cells In Diabetes

Date: Sep-17-2012
Scientists generally think that reduced insulin production by the pancreas, a hallmark of type 2 diabetes, is due to the death of the organ's beta cells. However, a new study by Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC) researchers shows that beta cells do not die but instead revert to a more fundamental, undifferentiated cell type. The findings suggest that strategies to prevent beta cells from de-differentiating, or to coax them to re-differentiate, might improve glucose balance in patients with type 2 diabetes...

Kidney Society Describes Ways To Eliminate Wasteful Tests And Procedures

Date: Sep-17-2012
Earlier this year, the American Society of Nephrology (ASN), the world's leading kidney organization, joined other groups in a campaign to help health care professionals and patients avoid wasteful and sometimes harmful medical interventions. A new article in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology (CJASN) outlines the ASN's top five recommendations for the campaign and the rationale behind them. Following these recommendations would lower costs and lead to better care for patients with kidney disease...

2 Studies Could Lead To New Personalized Therapies For Lung Cancer Patients

Date: Sep-17-2012
Lung cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide and is associated with very low survival rates. Two new genome-sequencing studies have uncovered novel genes involved in the deadly disease, as well as striking differences in mutations found in patients with and without a history of smoking. The findings, published September 13th by Cell Press in the journal Cell, could pave the way for personalized therapies that boost survival rates...

Scientists Use Prosthetic Device To Restore And Improve Impaired Decision-Making Ability In Animals

Date: Sep-17-2012
Imagine a prosthetic device capable of restoring decision-making in people who have reduced capacity due to brain disease or injury. While this may sound like science fiction, researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center have proven for the first time that it is possible in non-human primates, and believe that one day it will be possible in people...

Whitehead Scientists Bring New Efficiency To Stem Cell Reprogramming

Date: Sep-17-2012
Several years ago, biologists discovered that regular body cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent stem cells - cells with the ability to become any other type of cell. Such cells hold great promise for treating many human diseases. These induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) are usually created by genetically modifying cells to overexpress four genes that make them revert to an immature, embryonic state. However, the procedure works in only a small percentage of cells...

Moffitt Cancer Center Researchers Find Novel Predictor For Myelodysplastic Syndromes Progression Risk

Date: Sep-17-2012
Researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center and colleagues have discovered that changes in the physical characteristics of the effector memory regulatory T cell can predict the progression risk of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) to acute myeloid leukemia. The finding could improve prognostication for patients with MDS and better inform therapeutic decision making. The study was published in the August issue of The Journal of Immunology. Awareness of the condition increased earlier this year when ABC's "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts announced that she is battling MDS...

Neural Stem Cells Regenerate Axons In Severe Spinal Cord Injury

Date: Sep-17-2012
In a study at the University of California, San Diego and VA San Diego Healthcare, researchers were able to regenerate "an astonishing degree" of axonal growth at the site of severe spinal cord injury in rats. Their research revealed that early stage neurons have the ability to survive and extend axons to form new, functional neuronal relays across an injury site in the adult central nervous system (CNS). The study also proved that at least some types of adult CNS axons can overcome a normally inhibitory growth environment to grow over long distances...

Mild Increases In Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone Not Harmful In The Elderly

Date: Sep-17-2012
There is no evidence to link mildly elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels to an increase in mortality among the elderly, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM). The findings suggest that reflexively treating mild elevations of TSH in those of advanced age is unnecessary. TSH is a sensitive, commonly measured test to check thyroid function. TSH levels are inversely related to thyroid hormone levels - thyroid hormone levels below a set-point trigger an increase in TSH...

Study Finds That Natural Killer T-Cells In Fat Tissue Guard Against Obesity

Date: Sep-17-2012
Invariant natural killer T-cells (iNKT) are a unique subset of immune cells that are known to influence inflammatory responses. Now, a scientific team led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that iNKT cells play a protective role in guarding against obesity and the metabolic syndrome, a major consequence of obesity...