Body

Enthesitis, inflammation of tendons where they attach to the bone, is a common medical problem which underlies various forms of inflammatory rheumatism. Although around 1% of the population is affected, the mechanisms driving this type of inflammatory condition is poorly understood. Research by Professor Dirk Elewaut (VIB-UGent/UZ Gent), in collaboration with Professor Geert van Loo (VIB-UGent) at VIB's inflammation research center (IRC), is now changing this. The researchers have demonstrated that macrophages, a particular type of white blood cell, play a key role.

Increased sea temperatures could dramatically enhance and accelerate radiation-induced DNA effects in marine invertebrates, a new study suggests.

Led by Plymouth University, in conjunction with the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas), the research for the first time explored the impact of rising temperatures coupled with the presence of tritium, an environmentally relevant radionuclide, on marine mussels (Mytilus galloprovincialis).

Certain ingredients in essential oils made from plants such as cloves, anise, fennel and ylang-ylang could serve as a natural treatment of lung and liver conditions caused by air pollution. This is according to Miriana Kfoury of the Unité de Chimie Environnementale et Interactions sur le Vivant, Université du Littoral Côte d'Opale in France and the Lebanese University in Lebanon. She is the lead author of a study in Springer's journal Environmental Chemistry Letters.

Researchers centered at Tokyo Medical and Dental University(TMDU) deliver a protein/peptide combination using an injectable gel carrier to promote bone formation in mouse jawbones

A discovery in the field of biomaterials may open new frontiers in stem and cancer cell manipulation and associated advanced therapy development. Novel scaffolds are shown enabling cells to behave in a different but controlled way in vitro due to the presence of aligned, self-assembled ceramic nanofibers of an ultra-high anisotropy ratio augmented into graphene shells.

The WHO Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX®) is a resource developed for the calculation of an individual's 10-year probability of hip fracture and a major osteoporotic fracture based on specific clinical risk factors, with or without bone mineral density (BMD) values.

The Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare recently raised the recommended target blood pressure for patients with diabetes. This may lead to more patients suffering from stroke or heart attack, according to a new study from the Sahlgrenska Academy. The new study is the world's largest on the subject and is based on data from the National Diabetes Register.

In February 2015, the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare raised the recommended goal for systolic blood pressure (blood pressure when the heart is contracting) in their guidelines for diabetes care.

A study from Emory AIDS researchers shows how the expected disease severity when someone is newly infected by HIV reflects a balance between the virus' invisibility to the host's immune system and its ability to reproduce.

Examining HIV transmission events occurring in 169 heterosexual couples in Zambia, the researchers found that almost a third of potential immune target sites in the virus that established infection were "pre-adapted" to the immune response in the newly-infected partner.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Guaranteed-tuition laws, touted by lawmakers as protecting college affordability and ensuring access to higher education for low-income students, have received failing grades from two experts in higher education finance.

DURHAM, N.C. -- Often described as the blueprint of life, DNA contains the instructions for making every living thing from a human to a house fly.

But in recent decades, some researchers have been putting the letters of the genetic code to a different use: making tiny nanoscale computers.

In a new study, a Duke University team led by professor John Reif created strands of synthetic DNA that, when mixed together in a test tube in the right concentrations, form an analog circuit that can add, subtract and multiply as they form and break bonds.

EAST LANSING, Mich. - Melatonin, a hormone produced in the human brain, appears to suppress the growth of breast cancer tumors.

Researchers at Michigan State University published this finding in the current issue of Genes and Cancer. While treatments based on this key discovery are still years away, the results give scientists a key foundation on which to build future research.

For decades, conservationists have considered blue-winged warblers to be a threat to golden-winged warblers, a species being considered for federal Endangered Species protection. Blue-winged warbler populations have declined 66 percent since 1968, according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

The two species are known to frequently interbreed where they co-occur, and scientists have been concerned that the more numerous blue-winged warblers would genetically swamp the rarer golden-wing gene pool.

The first published combined medical and surgical care plan for managing septic perianal Crohn's disease, a serious complication that occurs in around 40 percent of Crohn's disease patients, has been developed by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine. The plan and its results took more than a decade to develop and are based on patient outcomes.

A new paper co-authored by a UC Santa Barbara researcher reveals that Latinos age at a slower rate than other ethnic groups. The findings, published in the current issue of Genome Biology, may one day help scientists understand how to slow the aging process for everyone.

MIAMI--An international team of scientists used a state-of-the-art computer model, a high-powered supercomputer, and five billion 'virtual' coral larvae to test Charles Darwin's 1880 hypothesis that marine species cannot cross the Eastern Pacific's "impassable" marine barrier. The team, which included University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science Associate Professor Claire Paris, found that Darwin's theory still hold true today even under extreme El Niño conditions known to speed up ocean currents.