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Exam nerves affects students' immune system
While diseases like asthma and allergies are becoming increasingly common in the West, many people believe that we are living ever stressful lives. A new study from Karolinska Institutet backs up what many people have suspected: that there are important links between mental stress and the complex physical inflammation reactions characteristic of allergies. In order to understand the link between stress and allergy, the scientists have examined how a major medical exam at Karolinska Institutet affects feelings of stress, stress hormone levels, the immune system and lung function amongst students with and without allergies. The extensive tests were made on two occasions, first with the students during a calm period of study with no exam in sight, and then shortly before a major exam. Twenty two students with hayfever and/or asthma and 19 healthy students took part. For the first time on record, scientists were able to show that a group of cells that are central to the human immune system known as regulatory T cells appear to increase sharply in number in response to mental stress. A regulatory T cell is a kind of white blood cell that controls the activity of a number of other types of immune cell. This increase was observed in both groups of students......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Trial Of New Asthma Treatment Calls For Volunteers
The trial, the first test of the procedure in the United States, focuses on a procedure called bronchial thermoplasty to treat asthma. Early patient data from trials outside the United States suggest it may hold promise for moderate and severe asthmatic patients. "This is an exciting trial because for the first time ever in the U.S., we are looking at a non-pharmacological treatment for asthma," says Mario Castro, M.D., principal investigator of the study at the School of Medicine and associate professor of medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. "Currently, if you suffer from asthma, medicine is the only treatment available to you for relief, so there is the potential this clinical trial may change the way we care for millions of asthma sufferers". Asthma is one of the most common and costly diseases in the world. It affects more than 20 million people in the United States alone, with an estimated 2 million emergency room visits and 5,000 deaths per year. The prevalence of asthma is on the rise, and there is no cure......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Technology For Brain Cooling Unlikely To Help Trauma Patients
Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis used rats to validate a "cold shielding" effect of blood flow that they previously predicted theoretically. The shielding effect, created by large quantities of warm blood that continually perfuse brain tissue, prevents a drop in temperatures around the head from penetrating beyond a certain depth in the brain. Many ongoing clinical trials try to reduce brain temperatures through cooling units incorporated into hats or other devices that surround the head. However, the new findings, published online this month in the Journal of Applied Physiology, suggest in most patients such techniques will be unable to defeat the natural temperature regulation built into the brain via the blood system. "In adult humans, the characteristic length that this kind of cold assault appears to penetrate is approximately a tenth of an inch, leaving the temperature of approximately 6 inches of brain tissue unchanged," says senior author Dmitriy Yablonskiy, Ph.D., professor of radiology at the School of Medicine and of physics in Arts and Sciences. "Our findings suggest that the reason trials of this kind have so far produced inconsistent results is because we're not cooling enough of the brain"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Conjunctival FOXP3 Expression in Trachoma
The processes that lead to the disease and its sequelae are not fully understood. Examination of the immune response as the infection unfolds is key to understanding the immunopathogenesis of ocular C. trachomatis infection (OCI). Infectious diseases are often characterised by an incubation period, in which infection is present without clinical disease; a period during which both infection and disease are present; and a period when clinical signs persist after infection has been cleared [7]. Miller et al. [8] have proposed that OCI follows such a pattern based on the clinical and microbiological observation of trachoma. Earlier work by our group supports this proposal [9]. We identified individuals with infection in the absence of clinical disease, and individuals with clinical signs in the absence of infection. Follow-up examination found that individuals who were PCR-positive but clinically negative were more likely to develop clinical signs than PCR-negative individuals. Conversely, clinical signs were twice as likely to have resolved after 1 mo in PCR-negative individuals with disease as in those who were PCR-positive. Dissection of the immune response in individuals at these times should identify key components of the immune response associated with the acquisition or resolution of infection and clinical signs of trachoma........ Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Skin Cancer Fear Grows As Ozone Layer Gets Thinner
Levels of ozone, which play a crucial role in helping to filter out harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, were believed to be rising after the systematic banning of the CFC chemicals which were damaging it. But now experts believe global warming is changing conditions in the upper atmosphere and leading to a reduction in levels again. Cancer experts warned yesterday that the results meant it was more important than ever for people to take precautions when in the sun. ........ Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Publisher Takes Weight Challenge Seriously
Reevs found out he has hypertension and in order to lower it, he became part of the Healthy Weight Journal Challenge. "There is a direct link between obesity and high blood pressure," he said. "To me it seems stupid taking medicine if you can take care of yourself healthwise"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Salads With Some Fat Are Healthier
Far from being a dieter's worst enemy, researchers are discovering that a little fat can actually do a lot of good. The researchers aren't saying fry your salad in bacon grease! But they say don't cut all fat out of your diet either. Why? It takes some fat to help your body absorb the cancer fighting nutrients in your vegetables. Jennifer Jarvis has always tried to stick to a light, healthy diet. But when she volunteered for a food study recently, she learned something that was a little hard to swallow -- that cutting fat completely out of her diet, was actually robbing her body of nutrients......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source How Acid Reflux Leads To Esophageal Cancer
The study found that the enzyme NOX5-S is affected by exposure to acid and that it produces stress on cells, activating genes that lead to DNA damage. For the first time, researchers have outlined the signaling pathway from cells damaged by acid, to the progression of esophageal cancer. They believe the same process may happen in the body when cells are exposed to acid reflux. "The role of acid is controversial. But we show that by exposing cells to acid for short periods of time, that affects a particular enzyme, triggering a chain of events that possibly leads to cancer of the esophagus. Now that we have a better understanding of the signaling pathway, we can possibly identify who is at risk of developing cancer by determining the levels of this enzyme," says senior author Weibiao Cao, a researcher at Rhode Island Hospital and an assistant professor of medicine and surgery at Brown Medical School. The study looked at human cancer cells and biopsies from patients with Barrett's esophagus (BE), a condition where cells in the esophagus have been altered by gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), or acid reflux. Acid reflux is believed to be a major risk factor for cancer in people with Barrett's esophagus......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Cause of Ischemic Stroke Analyzed
Scientists studied clots removed from the brain blood vessels of 25 stroke victims. The clots were retrieved during therapy using a novel mechanical clot-retrieval device called the MERCI (Mechanical Embolus Removal in Cerebral Ischemia) Retriever. The removed clots were analyzed under the microscope to compare their component structures. "Unexpectedly, no two retrieved clots looked the same, even though all were constructed from the same basic components of fibrin, white cells and red blood cells," said lead author Dr. Victor Marder, professor of hematology and oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a UCLA Stroke Center member. "The same components were involved in both the newly formed and mature, enlarging clots. Red blood-cell accumulations had previously been considered to dominate the structure of clots that formed within a heart chamber, but our results suggest that red cells often accumulated on clots after impaction in the brain artery". The findings could lead to better therapies to prevent clots, clear blockages and reverse strokes in the crucial first hours after they occur......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Life and death in the hippocampus
According to a research findings published in a forthcoming issue of Nature, researchers in the lab of Fred H. Gage, Ph.D., a professor in the Gene Expression Laboratory and the Vi and John Adler Chair for Research on Age-Related Neurodegenerative Diseases, identify a subunit of the NMDA receptor, a protein complex that transduces signals sent by neighboring cells, as the cells' life-saving equipment that allows them to integrate into the existing brain circuitry. The NMDA receptor is activated by the neurotransmitter glutamate, a chemical released by neurons in order to transmit information to neighboring cells. Whenever the receptor picks up a glutamate signal it is stimulated and relays the signal. But for newborn neurons that signal means something else entirely -- survival. "When we removed the NMDA receptor, that is when cells make connections in response to glutamate in the environment, the newborn neurons withered and died at a specific stage of their maturation," explains Gage. " The NMDA receptor modulates synapse formation and determines what pattern of input activity new neurons receive, which in turn determines survival or death"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source |
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