Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have discovered that a previously unexplained fatal form of Osteogenesis Imperfecta — a disorder that weakens bones and which may cause frequent fractures — results from a genetic defect in a protein involved in the production of collagen.
The New York City trans fat ban is a step in the right direction, but the regulation that requires some restaurants to display calories as prominently as price is just as important. Also missing in the discussion? Replacing trans fat will saturated fat would be problematic.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have pinpointed a key regulatory protein that translates blood flow into gene expression. The investigators showed that in a model of mouse embryonic development a transcription factor called Klf2, which resides in cells that line blood vessels, is activated by rapid, pulsed blood flow. Understanding Klf2’s role in blood vessel and muscle biology could help with fighting atherosclerosis.
Memory training and other non-drug treatments may one day help older adults ward off declines in mental function, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine in an editorial in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers at the University of Southern California have discovered a direct link between loss of testosterone and the development of an Alzheimer’s-like disease in mice. They also discovered that testosterone treatment slows progression of the disease.The study, published in the Dec. 20 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, predicts that testosterone-based hormone therapy may be useful in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer?s disease in aging men.
A new, large survey supported by the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation of America (CCFA) finds that 65 percent of ulcerative colitis patients are less than fully compliant with first-line therapies to treat their disease.The most commonly reported reasons for noncompliance with medications were the dosing frequency, the number of pills and the inconvenience associated with the medication.
Researchers at Mayo Clinic have successfully isolated nanoparticles from human kidney stones in cell cultures and have isolated proteins, RNA and DNA that appear to be associated with nanoparticles.
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.
A tiny implant now being developed at MIT could one day help doctors rapidly monitor the growth of tumors and the progress of chemotherapy in cancer patients.