Health News

Stem cell-derived pancreatic cells under the skin replace insulin

Date: Mar-27-2014
Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute (Sanford-Burnham) and UC San Diego School of Medicine scientists have shown that by encapsulating immature pancreatic cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESC), and implanting them under the skin in animal models of diabetes, sufficient insulin is produced to maintain glucose levels without unwanted potential trade-offs of the technology. The research suggests that encapsulated hESC-derived insulin-producing cells hold great promise as an effective and safe cell-replacement therapy for insulin-dependent diabetes.

Increase seen in number of patients admitted with antibiotic-resistant infections

Date: Mar-27-2014
The emergence of community-acquired infections, such as urinary tract infections (UTI), due to strains resistant to common antibiotics are on the rise, according to Rhode Island Hospital researchers. The study is published online in the journal Antimicrobial Resistance and Infection Control."Over the last several years, we've seen an increase in the number of bacteria - many of which are forms of E. coli - that are resistant to commonly administered antibiotics," said Leonard Mermel, D.O., medical director of the department of epidemiology and infection control at Rhode Island Hospital.

Method can replace live animals in skin allergy tests according to validation study

Date: Mar-27-2014
Guinea pigs and mice can be replaced with a non-animal skin sensitization method that uses a human-derived skin model, according to a study presented by the PETA International Science Consortium, Ltd., at the Society of Toxicology's annual meeting.Recent results show that Cyprotex's in vitro skin sensitization assay SenCeeTox® can correctly identify chemicals that cause an allergic response in humans and, unlike many other methods, can predict the potency of the response.

The 'white coat effect' - doctors raise blood pressure in patients

Date: Mar-27-2014
Doctors routinely record blood pressure levels that are significantly higher than levels recorded by nurses, the first thorough analysis of scientific data has revealed.A systematic review led by the University of Exeter Medical School, and supported by the National Institute for Health Research Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care in the South West Peninsula (NIHR PenCLAHRC), has discovered that recordings taken by doctors are significantly higher (by 7/4mmHg) than when the same patients are tested by nurses.

Experts in London suggest that penicillin prescriptions risk under-dosing children

Date: Mar-27-2014
Millions of children in the UK are potentially receiving penicillin prescriptions below the recommended dose for common infections, according to new research led jointly by researchers at King's College London, St George's, University of London and Imperial College London. The authors are calling for an urgent review of penicillin dosing guidelines for children - which at the time of study had not changed in over 50 years - after discovering wide variation in current prescribing practice.

How the brain infers structure, rules when learning could impact the study of learning disabilities

Date: Mar-27-2014
In life, many tasks have a context that dictates the right actions, so when people learn to do something new, they'll often infer cues of context and rules. In a new study, Brown University brain scientists took advantage of that tendency to track the emergence of such rule structures in the frontal cortex - even when such structure was not necessary or even helpful to learn - and to predict from EEG readings how people would apply them to learn new tasks speedily.Context and rule structures are everywhere.

Drugs' influence on blood clotting measured by microfluidic device with artificial arteries

Date: Mar-27-2014
A new microfluidic method for evaluating drugs commonly used for preventing heart attacks has found that while aspirin can prevent dangerous blood clots in some at-risk patients, it may not be effective in all patients with narrowed arteries. The study, which involved 14 human subjects, used a device that simulated blood flowing through narrowed coronary arteries to assess effects of anti-clotting drugs.The study is the first to examine how aspirin and another heart attack prevention drug respond to a variety of mechanical blood flow forces in healthy and diseased arteries.

Financial decline due to breast cancer treatment reported by twenty-five percent of survivors

Date: Mar-27-2014
Four years after being treated for breast cancer, a quarter of survivors say they are worse off financially, at least partly because of their treatment, according to a new study led by University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers.In addition, 12 percent reported that they still have medical debt from their treatment.Financial decline varied significantly by race, with Spanish-speaking Latinas most likely to be impacted. Debt was reported more frequently in English-speaking Latinas and Blacks, the study found. Results appear in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Test offers potential to predict whether a child will become obese

Date: Mar-27-2014
Scientists have found that a simple blood test, which can read DNA, could be used to predict obesity levels in children.Researchers at the Universities of Southampton, Exeter and Plymouth used the test to assess the levels of epigenetic switches in the PGC1a gene - a gene that regulates fat storage in the body.Epigenetic switches take place through a chemical change called DNA methylation which controls how genes work and is set during early life.

New MIT technique could help decipher genes' roles in learning and memory

Date: Mar-27-2014
Doctors commonly use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to diagnose tumors, damage from stroke, and many other medical conditions. Neuroscientists also rely on it as a research tool for identifying parts of the brain that carry out different cognitive functions.Now, a team of biological engineers at MIT is trying to adapt MRI to a much smaller scale, allowing researchers to visualize gene activity inside the brains of living animals.