A protein known to play a role in blood clotting and other cell functions is also critical for proper sperm formation in mice, according to researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.
The racial gap in preventive health care — such as Pap tests, mammograms, and prostate and colorectal cancer screenings — persists and might be larger than previously thought, a study published online in BMC Heath Services Research finds, the Washington Post reports. For the study, Kevin Fiscella, an associate professor of family medicine and community and preventive medicine at the University of Rochester’s School of Medicine, and colleagues compared self reports from patients and Medicare claims from their physicians to see when they were eligible for and last had screenings for several conditions.
The link between short sleep duration and obesity: We should recommend more sleep to prevent obesity. Soaring levels of obesity might be linked to children sleeping fewer hours at night than they used to, claims a researcher in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The cornea stays clear by expressing a soluble form of a receptor that traps factors enabling growth of vision-obstructing blood vessels, researchers say. When sflt-1, a free-floating receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor A, is eliminated, vision-obstructing blood vessels start growing, teams of researchers led by the Medical College of Georgia and University of Kentucky report in Nature. The paper was published online Oct. 18 and will be in the Oct. 26 print issue.
Certain types of brain cancer cells, called cancer stem cells, help brain tumors to buffer themselves against radiation treatment by activating a “repair switch” that enables them to continue to grow unchecked, researchers at Duke University Medical Center have found.
UT Southwestern Medical Center is one of a handful of top research institutions evaluating a promising new medication researchers hope can reduce the severity and frequency of asthma attacks in inner-city children, a population known to have a high prevalence of severe asthma.
New data released today demonstrate significantly better immune responses in the age range 65 and above when vaccinated with GSK?s new generation (adjuvanted) seasonal flu vaccine compared to a traditional seasonal flu vaccine. These new data are highly important, since the disease burden and death toll is highest among the elderly in each flu season. The data, presented at the Influenza Vaccines for the World (IVW) 2006 Congress, showed the seroprotection rate (90.5%) achieved by the new adjuvanted vaccine in the elderly to be more than 25% higher than that reported in the age matched comparator group.
A child?s susceptibility to autism is increased with a single gene mutation according to research conducted by, a Vanderbilt-led research team. This discovery has far-reaching implications because this gene, a variant form of a gene called MET, is not just specifically a brain gene but rather a gene which has its effect on multiple systems in the body such as immune function and gut repair.
US scientists have come up with a new way to determine whether someone is suffering from an eating disorder – examining their hair. A study released by researchers from Utah’s Brigham Young University found that examining carbon and nitrogen in the proteins of hair could reveal information about a person’s day-to-day nutrition.
At the 11th biennial meeting of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) underway in Santa Monica, CA, the potential impact of widespread adoption of HPV vaccination among girls in Mexico was described. In a study, “HPV-Vaccination Impact on Cervical Cancer Incidence and Mortality in Mexico: A Cancer Registry Based Model,” a team from the Mexican Institute of Social Security (Instituto Mexicano Del Seguro Social), the Mexican Institute of Public Health (Instituto Nacional de Salud Publica) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) concluded that HPV vaccination targeting HPV subtypes 16 and 18 could reduce cervical cancer cases and deaths by 60 percent.