Health News

Novel tissue engineered bone graft achieves successful repair of bone defects

Date: Dec-06-2013
Researchers at the Department of Orthopaedics, of the Second Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, led by Dr. Kunzheng Wang and Dr. Pei Yang have developed a novel biomimetic tissue engineered bone graft based on rabbit adipose derived stem cells (rASCs), collagen I and a porous beta-tricalcium phosphate (β-TCP) scaffold. Furthermore, the critical-sized bone defects model of rabbits was used to evaluate the efficiency of the construct.

Protein identified that helps developing germ cells wipe genes clean of past imprints

Date: Dec-06-2013
A protein called Tet1 is partly responsible for giving primordial germ cells a clean epigenetic slate before developing into sperm and egg cells, according to a new study by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital. This discovery could help provide clues to the cause of some kinds of neonatal growth defects and may also help advance the development of stem cell models of disease.The findings were reported online in Nature by a research team led by Yi Zhang, PhD, and Shinpei Yamaguchi, PhD, of Boston Children's Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine.

Estrogen not just produced by the ovaries

Date: Dec-06-2013
A University of Wisconsin-Madison research team reports that the brain can produce and release estrogen - a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of hormonal changes observed from before birth throughout the entire aging process.The new research shows that the hypothalamus can directly control reproductive function in rhesus monkeys and very likely performs the same action in women.Scientists have known for about 80 years that the hypothalamus, a region in the brain, is involved in regulating the menstrual cycle and reproduction.

African-American college students' hesitation to breast-feed future children likely due to social stigmas against breast-feeding

Date: Dec-06-2013
African-American mothers breast-feed their children at lower rates than Caucasian, Latina and Asian mothers. This difference often has been attributed to socio-demographic factors such as age, income, education and personal experience with breast-feeding. Now, a researcher at the University of Missouri has discovered that African-American college students are aware of the benefits of breast-feeding for infants, yet some still are hesitant about breast-feeding future children. Evidence revealed a lack of public acceptance toward breast-feeding may influence this hesitation.

'Let your fingers do the walking'

Date: Dec-06-2013
When you are typing away at your computer, you don't know what your fingers are really doing.That is the conclusion of a study conducted by a team of cognitive psychologists at Vanderbilt and Kobe universities. It found that skilled typists can't identify the positions of many of the keys on the QWERTY keyboard and that novice typists don't appear to learn key locations in the first place.

New studies bring hope to older women wanting improvements in their libido

Date: Dec-06-2013
For women, passing midlife can deal a blow to their sex drive. But two new studies just published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society, offer hope to women who want to get their sexual mojo back.No testosterone treatment for women has yet passed muster with the FDA. An important step toward developing a successful and safe treatment for women after natural or surgical menopause is to find out how much testosterone is really needed to bring desire back.

Discovery has implications for a number of conditions related to anxiety and trauma

Date: Dec-06-2013
A team of Montreal researchers at the IRCM led by Dr. Nabil G. Seidah, in collaboration with Dr. William C. Wetsel's team at Duke University in the United States, discovered that the protein PC7 plays a critical role in the brain by affecting certain types of cognitive performance such as anxiety, learning and emotional memory. Their results, recently published in the scientific journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and Nature, could have a significant impact on regulating behaviour related to anxiety disorders and trauma.

Self-reported 'experienced' well-being could help inform policies

Date: Dec-06-2013
Gathering survey data on "experienced" well-being - the self-reported levels of contentment, joy, stress, frustration, and other feelings people experience throughout the day and while engaged in various activities - would be valuable to inform policies, says a new report from the National Research Council.

Bone destruction in diseases such as arthritis and cancer: new target identified for prevention

Date: Dec-06-2013
The skeleton is constantly being remodelled by the breakdown of old bone by cells called osteoclasts and the formation of new bone by cells called osteoblasts. This coordinated activity is essential for maintaining healthy bone. However, excessive osteoclast activity leads to bone destruction in skeletal diseases such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer metastases in bone. A family of signaling enzymes known as phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases (PI3Ks) control diverse cell functions but, up until now, little was known about the function of specific PI3K isoforms in osteoclasts.

Research & Development for Diseases of the Poor: A 10-Year Analysis of Impact of the DNDi Model

Date: Dec-06-2013
Report provides real and estimated costs of repurposing drugs and new chemical entities, evoking the lessons learned based on alternative pathways and partnershipsAt a scientific meeting at Institut Pasteur, France, entitled 'Best Science for the Most Neglected: Where Do We Stand Ten Years On?