One key to your high blood pressure might just be your inflammatory genes. It may sound odd but mounting evidence suggests that inflammation, a part of the immune response implicated in diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and diabetes, may also help translate stress into high blood pressure.
Peering deep within the cells of fruit flies, developmental biologists at the Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia may have discovered a new way that genes are turned on and off during development. If they’re right, and the same processes are at work in higher organisms, including mammals, the findings could eventually have implications for improving the understanding of a range of diseases, including childhood cancer.
A gene variant linked to living a very long life–to 90 and beyond–also serves to help very old people think clearly and retain their memories, according to new research by scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University. Their findings are published in the December 26, 2006 issue of Neurology.
New research explains how movie theaters may increase profits by moving away from uniform pricing to variable pricing. The study is being published in an upcoming issue of the International Review of Law & Economics.
A Northwestern University study uses a new strategy to show precisely how paying attention alters brain activity. Digging deep to summon that extra ounce of attention engages a symphony of brain activity that comes to your rescue as millions of neurons work together to make the music of a vivid conscious experience. Think of a conductor stepping in to control a large set of unruly musicians in an orchestra so that they can all play together.
Older adults who received cognitive training reported improved cognitive function for up to five years afterwards and less decline in the ability to perform daily activities as compared to those who did not receive the training, according to a study in the Dec. 20 issue of JAMA.
Whether reopening narrowed kidney arteries benefits patients is a $1.7 billion question a North American study hopes to answer.
Right now there’s no rapid way to diagnose sepsis, a fast-moving blood infection that is a leading cause of death in hospital intensive care units. New research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests that doctors one day could quickly distinguish sepsis from widespread non-infectious inflammation based on genetic profiles of patients’ blood.
How a potentially deadly bacterium that could be used as a bioterrorist tool eludes being killed by the human immune system is now better understood, researchers report in the December issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology.
A tiny, six-legged critter that suspends all biological activity when the going gets tough may hold answers to a better way to cryopreserve human eggs, researchers say.