Health News

Gladstone Scientists Map The Genomic Blueprint Of The Heart

Date: Sep-17-2012
Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have revealed the precise order and timing of hundreds of genetic "switches" required to construct a fully functional heart from embryonic heart cells-providing new clues into the genetic basis for some forms of congenital heart disease...

Perceived Control Affects Complication Rates In Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome

Date: Sep-17-2012
Patients admitted to hospital with obstructed heart arteries were three times more likely to experience complications when they were in hospital if they felt they were not in control of their condition, according to research published in the October issue of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. However, persistent anxiety on its own appeared to have little effect on whether patients experienced complications or not. Researchers looked at 171 patients admitted to hospitals in the USA, Australia and New Zealand with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), following them for two years...

Fruit Flies Reveal Surprising New Evolutionary Link For Studying Human Health

Date: Sep-17-2012
New research reveals that fruit flies and mammals may share a surprising evolutionary link in how they control body temperature through circadian rhythm, unlocking new ways to study the insects as models of human development and disease. The study posted online Sept. 13 by Current Biology reports that similar to people, Drosophila fruit flies - a common research tool in life sciences - have a genetically driven internal clock. This circadian clock prompts the insects to seek out warmer or cooler external temperatures according to the time of the day...

Puberty Turned On By Brain During Deep Sleep

Date: Sep-17-2012
Slow-wave sleep, or 'deep sleep', is intimately involved in the complex control of the onset of puberty, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM). The many changes that occur in boys and girls during puberty are triggered by changes in the brain. Previous studies have shown that the parts of the brain that control puberty first become active during sleep, but the present study shows that it is deep sleep, rather than sleep in general, that is associated with this activity...

In Lung Cancer, Smokers Have 10 Times More Genetic Damage Than Never-Smokers

Date: Sep-17-2012
Lung cancer patients with a history of smoking have 10 times more genetic mutations in their tumors than those with the disease who have never smoked, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "None of us were surprised that the genomes of smokers had more mutations than the genomes of never-smokers with lung cancer," says senior author Richard K. Wilson, PhD, director of The Genome Institute at Washington University. "But it was surprising to see 10-fold more mutations. It does reinforce the old message - don't smoke...

Low Cost Design Makes Ultrasound Imaging Affordable To The World

Date: Sep-17-2012
An ultra-low cost scanner that can be plugged into any computer or laptop to reveal vital information about the unborn child has been developed by engineers at Newcastle University, UK. The hand-held USB device - which is roughly the size of a computer mouse - works in a similar way to existing ultrasound scanners, using pulses of high frequency sound to build up a picture of the unborn child on the computer screen...

Gestational Exposure To Urban Air Pollution Linked To Vitamin D Deficiency In Newborns

Date: Sep-17-2012
Gestational exposure to ambient urban air pollution, especially during late pregnancy, may contribute to lower vitamin D levels in offspring, according to a recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism (JCEM). According to study authors, this could affect the child's risk of developing diseases later in life. Recent data have demonstrated that maternal vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy may have an influence on the development of asthma and allergic diseases in offspring...

Missing Pieces Of DNA Structure Is A Red Flag For Deadly Skin Cancer

Date: Sep-17-2012
Melanoma is the most dangerous type of skin cancer and is the leading cause of death from skin disease. Rates are steadily increasing, and although risk increases with age, melanoma is now frequently seen in young people. But what if we could pinpoint when seemingly innocuous skin pigment cells mutate into melanoma? Researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) have achieved this. Teams led by Yujiang Geno Shi, PhD, from BWH's Department of Medicine, and George F. Murphy, MD, from BWH's Department of Pathology have discovered a new biomarker for the lethal disease...

'Mini' Stroke Can Cause Major Disability, May Warrant Clot-Busters

Date: Sep-17-2012
A transient ischemic attack, TIA or a "mini stroke," can lead to serious disability, but is frequently deemed by doctors too mild to treat, according to a study in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. "Our study shows that TIA and minor stroke patients are at significant risk of disability and need early assessment and treatment," said Shelagh Coutts, M.D., lead author of the study at Foothills Hospital in Calgary, Alberta, Canada...

Charting The SH2 Pool

Date: Sep-17-2012
New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal Cell Communication and Signaling describes a large set of interactions (interactome) which maps the range of phosphotyrosine (pTyr)-dependent interactions with SH2 domains underlying insulin (Ins), insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and fibroblast growth factor (FGF) signaling pathways. In the control of cell signaling pathways SH2 domains can be thought of as a master connector and tyrosine kinases the switch...