Body

A new study shows that the number of infant deaths and injuries attributed to crib bumpers has spiked significantly in recent years, prompting the researchers to call for a nationwide ban on the bedding accessory.

OAKLAND, Calif., November 23, 2015 -- Women with gestational diabetes who consistently and continuously breastfeed from the time of giving birth are half as likely to develop type 2 diabetes within two years after delivery, according to a study from Kaiser Permanente published today in Annals of Internal Medicine.

By collecting samples from the portal vein--which carries blood from the gastrointestinal tract, including from the pancreas, to the liver--physicians can learn far more about a patient's pancreatic cancer than by relying on peripheral blood from a more easily accessed vein in the arm.

Primary tumors shed cancerous cells, known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs), into the blood. These have been widely studied as prognostic biomarkers for various cancers. Because these cells are often larger, irregularly shaped and tend to cluster together, they get trapped in smaller vessels.

Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are the primary vector of Lyme disease to humans, but researchers at Old Dominion University in Virginia are focusing on another tick, Ixodes affinis, even though it doesn't bite people.

University of Notre Dame researchers have discovered a compound that accelerates diabetic wound healing, which may open the door to new treatment strategies. Non-healing chronic wounds are a major complication of diabetes, which result in more than 70,000 lower-limb amputations in the United States alone each year. The reasons why diabetic wounds are resistant to healing are not fully understood, and there are limited therapeutic agents that could accelerate or facilitate their repair.

DURHAM, N.C. -- The connections are still obscure, but mounting evidence points to a link between infections, the immune system, and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's, ALS, and Parkinson's.

Now, a team of Duke University researchers has shown that infection with live, pathogenic bacteria causes neurodegeneration in the worm C. elegans. Infected worms display a number of changes that are hallmarks of neurodegeneration in aging humans and patients with illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease.

Scientists have revealed that glucocorticoids, a class of steroid hormones that are commonly prescribed as drugs, enhance muscle endurance and alleviate muscular dystrophy through activation of the gene KLF15. Critically, this pathway is not involved in muscle wasting or the other major detrimental effects of prolonged steroid use. The discovery, published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to the development of new medications that improve muscle function without the negative consequences caused by long-term steroid exposure.

From an evolutionary perspective it happened almost overnight. In less than 800 years Yakutian horses adapted to the extremely cold temperatures found in the environments of eastern Siberia. The adaptive process involved changes in the expression of a plethora of genes, including some also selected in human Siberian groups and the extinct wooly mammoth.

A simple PVC eraser has helped an international team of scientists led by bioarchaeologists at the University of York to resolve the mystery surrounding the tissue-thin parchment used by medieval scribes to produce the first pocket Bibles.

Thousands of the Bibles were made in the 13th century, principally in France but also in England, Italy and Spain. But the origin of the parchment -- often called 'uterine vellum' -- has been a source of longstanding controversy.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- University of Florida Health researchers have identified genes that are disrupted by abnormal hormone signaling at crucial points during development, a finding that may lead to a better understanding of how the most common male genital birth defects arise in humans.

OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Nov. 23, 2015--Supercomputing simulations at the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory could change how researchers understand the internal motions of proteins that play functional, structural and regulatory roles in all living organisms. The team's results are featured in Nature Physics.

PRINCETON, N.J.--The global population is expected to increase by two to three billion people by 2050, a projection raising serious concerns about sustainable development, biodiversity and food security.

After a decade of battling the highly destructive citrus greening bacterium, researchers with the University of Florida's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have developed genetically modified citrus trees that show enhanced resistance to greening, and have the potential to resist canker and black spot, as well. However, the commercial availability of those trees is still several years away.

The BK polyomavirus often causes complications after kidney transplantation. The research group of Professor Hans H. Hirsch from the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel has now been able to show, that the immunosuppressive drug Tacrolimus directly activates the replication of the virus and could thus be responsible for these complications. The American Journal of Transplantation has published the study.

Cells communicate with other cells in our bodies by sending and receiving signals. Cancer can occur when these signals are "dysregulated" and abnormal cells grow out of control.