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 Back to Eurekalert Medical and Health News Archives
Eurekalert Medical and Health News: 12-15-2004
Regeneration of damaged hearts using blood stem cells now appears to be clinically promising, say Texas researchers who show that in mice, human stem cells use different methods to morph into two kinds of cells needed to restore heart function - cardiac muscle cells that contract the heart as well as the endothelial cells that line blood vessels found throughout the organ.
Most people have a collection of some kind at some point in their lives. Indeed, historical studies show that acquiring and retaining objects, even when they are not necessary for survival, is not only nearly universal, but also has been part of human behavior since the earliest human societies. Yet despite the ubiquitous nature of this trait, very little is known about what drives humans to collect.
According to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Washington County Health Department, distributing free nicotine patches increased participation in a Maryland smoking cessation program and helped 27 percent more people stop smoking during the first six months after quitting.
Cancer and cell-ageing researchers working at the Wales College of Medicine at Cardiff University, UK have secured over 15 million UK pounds to study cancer and DNA damage. These awards put Cardiff at the very forefront of international research in this area and will fund the design of new therapies to combat cancer.
Imedex, Inc. and The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) today announced their collaboration in the promotion of The World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer., a clinically-focused Congress that has attracted thousands of oncologists and gastroenterologists since its inception in 1999.
Ranitidine, a widely used substance used as an antihistaminic drug against gastric ulcers, may become a new treatment for cerebral ischemia caused by craneoencephalic infarcts or traumatisms, the third leading cause of deaths in industrialised countries. In experiments with a model of cerebral ischemia using rats, a team from the Institute of Neurosciences of the Universitat Aut.noma de Barcelona (Spain) has observed how the presence of ranitidine reduces neuronal death by a quarter.
The DFG named the winners of the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Programme for 2005. The most valuable research prize in Germany is will go to ten scientists and academics.
Study results published today in the journal Movement Disorders show that Requip.(ropinirole HCl) Tablets effectively treats the symptoms of primary Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) as assessed by improvements in symptoms, over 12 weeks. Improvements were seen as early as one week. The study of 267 patients, one of the largest placebo-controlled trials of a treatment for RLS conducted to-date, also showed significant improvements in sleep and quality of life in RLS patients taking Requip versus placebo.
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have shown that some long-term breast-cancer survivors may have innate mechanisms to keep breast cancer at bay.Their findings, published in the December issue of Clinical Cancer Research and available online, show that one-third of the longtime disease-free patients in the study had circulating tumor cells (CTCs).
Newsworthy journal highlights include studies showing that: high-risk patients with severe asthma who were hospitalized for serious exacerbations reduced their prescribed inhaled or oral corticosteroid dose within 7 days of discharge by 50 percent; participants with mild to moderate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who used an inhaled corticosteroid showed reduced bone density; and, at 10 clinical centers, researchers found a strong association between the disease sarcoidosis and occupational exposure to insecticides.
The development of a laboratory model for a rare, inherited form of blindness holds promise that scientists might one day be able to test new treatments to prevent or cure this devastating disease of the retina. This finding, from investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Columbia University, will be published in the Dec. 20 issue of Molecular Brain Research (MBR).
A mutant gene that starves the brain of serotonin has been discovered and found to be 10 times more prevalent in depressed patients than in control subjects. Patients with the mutation failed to respond well to SSRI antidepressants, which work via serotonin, suggesting that the mutation may underlie a treatment-resistant subtype of the illness. The mutation codes for the brain enzyme that makes serotonin and results in 80 percent less of the neurotransmitter.
Restricting the diets of mice reduces the build-up of plaques in thebrain that are linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to a USCstudy.
Many women at high risk for breast cancer are foregoing tamoxifen, the first FDA-approved drug for prevention of breast cancer, due to concerns about side effects, increased risk of other cancers, and lack of information, a new study by researchers in Boston shows. The study will be published December 14 in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Psychologists saw a significant step forward in their ongoing effort to improve managed care administrative services and policies when CIGNA agreed to change its policies and procedures to better ensure easier and faster processing of transactions for claims as well as prompt payment for services.
The risks from vaginal delivery after a prior Cesarean delivery are low, but are slightly higher than for a repeat Cesarean delivery. This finding is from the largest, most comprehensive study of its kind ever conducted, undertaken by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have figured out a way to boost the immune function in animals following such treatments. Their approach involves increasing the pool of cells that give rise to neutrophils, a type of white blood cell that is critical for fighting bacterial and fungal infections but is particularly ravaged by chemotherapy.
Hold off putting up your usual variety of mistletoe - the dwarf mistletoe could soon eclipse its better-known Christmas cousins as the green fertility symbol of choice for holiday party goers. In fact, the discovery of the intimate details of the sex life of the dwarf mistletoe is even getting traditionally staid botanists hot and bothered.
Scientists at UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute are reporting significant advances in their studies of retinal detachment, including the fact that cellular changes that occur in the retinas of animals with retinal detachments also occur in humans. This implies that experimental therapies that reduce cellular damage in animals have a high likelihood of being successful in humans. The research has broad implications since the cell types involved are the same as those in the brain and spinal cord.
Drunken fruit flies have led to the discovery that insulin may determine susceptibility to alcohol. If confirmed in humans -- and the two species share about two-thirds of their genes -- the finding suggests a promising way to treat alcoholism using drugs that control insulin activity.
The newly released report, "Cancer Incidence and Mortality in California: Trends by Race and Ethnicity 1988-2001," is an examination of 14 years of statewide cancer data. The Los Angeles Cancer Surveillance Program produced the report with data from fellow regional cancer registries. About 140,000 cancer cases and 50,000 cancer deaths are reported statewide each year.
The form of vitamin E found in many plant seeds - but not in most manufactured nutritional supplements - might halt cancer. Gamma-tocopherol, which occurs naturally in walnuts, pecans, sesame seeds, and in corn and sesame oils, inhibits the proliferation of lab-cultured human prostate and lung cancer cells.
Common sense leads to the conclusion that if you have blood cells you must have blood vessels and that if you have blood vessels they must have blood to carry. Researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have presented the first clear evidence that nature ensures both develop together by using a common progenitor cell.
In the January 2005 issue of Acta Biomaterialia, MIT researchers and colleagues report the most complete and quantitative characterization yet of how a healthy human blood cell changes its shape, or deforms, upon being invaded by the malaria-inducing parasite Plasmodium falciparum. In the same article, the researchers show how the deformation of human pancreatic cancer cells in response to certain naturally occurring biomolecules may affect the metastasis of that disease. Ultimately, the work could lead to better treatments for these and other diseases.
A new study provides evidence that a herpes vaccine developed by a Harvard Medical School researcher is a strong candidate for testing in humans. The study, published online Dec. 14 in the Journal of Virology, compared three different experimental vaccines for herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2), the virus that causes most cases of genital herpes.
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