Bone health experts attending the 1st Asia-Pacific Osteoporosis Meeting in Singapore this week have flagged vitamin D deficiency as a major concern in the region, particularly in South Asia where the problem is especially severe and widespread across the entire population.
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A study carried out over 50 years by an international team, with the participation of the Balearic Oceanography Centre of the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) has confirmed an increase in the size and intensity of proliferations of the jellyfish Pelagia noctiluca. There are several complex reasons for this - over-fishing and the current increase in sea water temperatures.
Although rare, the true incidence of neonaticides - the unlawful killing of a baby within the first 24 hours of its life - is more than five times as common as official estimates suggest, suggests research published online in the Fetal and Neonatal edition of the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Low maternal self esteem and emotional immaturity, rather than obvious mental illness or social disadvantage, are key drivers, the research indicates.
The protozoan parasite Toxoplasma gondii and the pathogenic bacterium Chlamydia trachomatis exemplify convergent evolution, the development of a similar biological trait in unrelated lineages, according to research presented today at the American Society of Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
The best currently available screening tests can only slightly reduce ovarian cancer deaths. That is the conclusion of new research published early online in Cancer, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. The results suggest that strategies other than screening, such as prevention and better treatments, will be needed to significantly lower the number of women who die from ovarian cancer.
DURHAM, NC – Cancer prevention experts have long been frustrated by the lack of a meaningful way to screen women for ovarian cancer. It is a relatively rare disease that often progresses with few symptoms until it is too late for potentially curative treatments, and elevated values of the most commonly used biomarker used in screening, CA125, are also related to other disorders.
The Egyptian vulture population of the Canary Islands was established following the arrival of the first human settlers who brought livestock to the islands. A genetic comparison of Iberian and Canarian birds, published in the open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, found that the Egyptian vulture population in the Canary Islands was likely established around 2500 years ago – around the same time as humans began to colonise the islands.
Research published today identifies two genetic variants that increase the risk of developing endometriosis, a common gynaecological disease. The study provides clues to the origin of this often very painful condition, which has a significant impact on the quality of life of sufferers.
CINCINNATI –For the first time, scientists have created functioning human intestinal tissue in the laboratory from pluripotent stem cells.
In a study posted online Dec. 12 by Nature, scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center say their findings will open the door to unprecedented studies of human intestinal development, function and disease. The process is also a significant step toward generating intestinal tissue for transplantation, researchers say.
A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers has developed a faster way to engineer synthetic enzymes that target specific DNA sequences for inactivation, repair or alteration. The report from the MGH Molecular Pathology Unit, being published online in Nature Methods, describes a highly effective but less labor-intensive way to generate powerful tools called zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs).
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have pinpointed a protein that compromises the kidney's filtering ability, causing nephrotic syndrome, and demonstrated that a naturally occurring precursor of an acid in the body offers potential for treating some forms of the condition.
The research was published online Dec. 12 in Nature Medicine.
Researchers at the University of California, Riverside (UCR), have identified components in pomegranate juice that seem to inhibit the movement of cancer cells and weaken their attraction to a chemical signal that has been shown to promote the metastasis of prostate cancer to the bone, according to a presentation today at the American Society for Cell Biology's 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
Insulin-secreting pancreatic islet cells have been generated from human spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs) directly isolated from human testicular tissue, researchers reported today at the American Association of Cell Biology 50th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia.
When grafted into diabetic mice that lacked a transplant-rejecting immune system, the bioengineered cells functioned much like somatic β-islet cells, the Georgetown University (GU) Medical Center researchers said.