OKLAHOMA CITY – While studying the mechanics of blood clots, researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center discovered a new enzyme that not only affects the blood, but seems to play a primary role in how cancer tumors expand and spread throughout the body. The research appeared in recent issues of the journal Blood and the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis.
Body
Scientists have identified a molecular cause behind the ravages of old age and in doing so have also shown how a natural process for fighting cancer in younger persons can actually promote cancer in older individuals. Cellular senescence, the process by which biological cells stop dividing in response to stress or damage to their DNA, was shown to trigger the secretion of proteins that cause inflammation in neighboring cells and tissue. Inflammation is linked to almost every major disease associated with aging, including many cancers.
COLUMBIA, Mo. – "FORE"...Though they may not help improve a person's golf game, stream salamanders might change the way golfers think about the local country club in the near future, following a new University of Missouri study.
Scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego returning from research expeditions in Mexico have captured unprecedented details of vibrant sea life and ecosystems in the Gulf of California, including documentations of new species and marine animals previously never seen alive. Yet the expeditions, which included surveys at unexplored depths, have revealed disturbing declines in sea-life populations and evidence that human impacts have stretched down deeply in the gulf.
SAN DIEGO – (December 3, 2008) A research team led by the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology and Albany Medical College has illuminated the important role of natural killer (NK) T cells in Lyme disease, demonstrating that the once little understood white blood cells are central to clearing the bacterial infection and reducing the intensity and duration of arthritis associated with Lyme disease.
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---One of the most promising new ideas about the causes of cancer, known as the cancer stem-cell model, must be reassessed because it is based largely on evidence from a laboratory test that is surprisingly flawed when applied to some cancers, University of Michigan researchers have concluded.
By upgrading the lab test, the U-M scientists showed that melanoma---the deadliest form of skin cancer---does not follow the conventional cancer stem-cell model, as prior reports had suggested.
A new study has found that a school-based asthma education program conducted in the Oakland, California school district was shown to reduce symptoms and increase the number of days that children who suffered from asthma were able to go to school. The study will be published this month in the Journal of School Health.
Scientists have successfully created the first induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cell lines from adult monkey skin cells. The research, published by Cell Press in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates that the method of direct reprogramming is conserved among species and may be useful for creation of clinically valuable primate models for human diseases.
LA JOLLA, CA — Long thought of as mere bystanders, astrocytes are crucial for the survival and well-being of motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movements. In fact, defective astrocytes can lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Stem cell researchers at UCLA have proven definitively that blood stem cells are made during mid-gestational embryonic development by endothelial cells, the cells that line the inside of blood vessels.
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's process of generating risk assessments -- which estimate the potential adverse effects posed by harmful chemicals found in the environment in order to protect public health -- is bogged down by unprecedented challenges, and as a decision-making tool it is often hindered by a disconnect between available scientific data and the information needs of officials, says a new report from the National Research Council.
WORCESTER, Mass. – Dec. 3, 2008 – Interleukin-12 is a naturally occurring protein essential for the proper functioning of the human immune system. Having either too much or too little interleukin-12 may play a role in the development of many diseases, including some cancers and auto-immune disorders like Crohn's, psoriasis, and rheumatoid arthritis. In turn, modulating interleukin-12 levels could yield new therapies for those conditions.
Louisville, Ky. – Results of a phase III, international randomized clinical trial demonstrate a new standard of care for treating advanced ovarian cancer that significantly reduces side-effects and post-operative deaths compared to the previously established treatment course. The study, presented at the 12th Biennial Meeting of the International Gynecologic Cancer Society (IGCS) in Bangkok in October, has a major impact on many countries where the new standard represents a more practical course of treatment.
St. Petersburg, FL – December 3, 2008 – A new study in the journal Family Process shows that infants appear to be active participants in complex interactional sequences with their parents far earlier than previously thought. Researchers documented the capacity of three-month old infants to share attention with two partners simultaneously.
CINCINNATI – A genetic malfunction that causes DNA instability in people with the blood disorder Fanconi anemia may put them at high risk for squamous cell carcinomas linked to human papillomavirus (HPV), according to a study posted online ahead of print by Oncogene.