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Chemical Compounds Restore Normal Glucose Levels
Type 2 diabetes - 90 to 95 percent of all diabetes cases - affects an estimated 18 million people in the United States, and causes some 200,000 deaths a year. Obesity is closely linked to insulin resistance and is one of the leading risk factors for type 2 diabetes. The molecular mechanisms that link these two metabolic diseases remain under investigation, and current therapeutic options are limited. Gokhan S. Hotamisligil, chair of the HSPH Department of Genetics and Complex Diseases, is the senior author of the Science paper. In 2004, he led a team that identified a major molecular pathway that causes diabetes. A cornerstone of that discovery was a hypothesis that the key to the obesity-diabetes connection might be found in the endoplasmic reticulum, or ER - a system of folded membranes and tubules in the cytoplasm of cells where proteins and lipids are manufactured, processed, and shipped around the cell. When unusual demands - such as excess fat - are put on the ER's capacity, the organelle starts failing, and the cell enters an emergency mode, emitting stress signals. The condition is called ER stress. Cellular inflammation, insulin resistance and diabetes result. (http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/press/releases/press10142004.htm)......... Posted by: Sarah Permalink Source Now You Can Be More Active
Do you think you cannot exercise, play sports, or become fit? It's true that very large people face special challenges in trying to be active. We have to agree that you may not be able to bend or move in the same way that other people can. Sometimes you might find it hard to find clothes and equipment for exercising. It is also possible that you may feel self-conscious being physically active around other people. Facing and solving these challenges is hard but it can be done!........ Posted by: Sean Permalink PSA predicts treatment success
The study evaluated 1,345 men with prostate cancer that had spread to distant parts of the body. The men were treated with seven months of androgen deprivation therapy, a treatment designed to block the effects of hormones on the cancer. PSA levels were monitored throughout the treatment. The researchers found that men whose PSA dropped below 4.0 ng/ml had a quarter the risk of dying compared to those whose PSA was more than 4.0. Results of the study appear in the Aug. 20 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. "Our analysis showed that a low or undetectable PSA after seven months of androgen deprivation therapy is a powerful predictor of risk of death in patients with new metastatic prostate cancer. This could allow oncologists to identify patients who are unlikely to do well with this treatment long before they develop clinical signs of treatment resistance," says lead study author Maha Hussain, M.D., professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source How We Detect Sour Taste
The study, featured on the cover of the August 24 issue of the journal Nature, reports that each of the five basic tastes is detected by distinct taste receptors-proteins that detect taste molecules-in distinct cells. The team previously discovered the sweet, bitter and umami (savory) receptors and showed that they are found in separate cells, but some researchers have argued that sour and salty tastes, which depend on the detection of ions, would not be wired in the same way. "Our results show that each of the five basic taste qualities is exquisitely segregated into different taste cells" explained Charles Zuker, a professor of biology at UCSD and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, who headed the study. "Taken together, our work has also shown that all taste qualities are found in all areas of the tongue, in contrast with the popular view that different tastes map to different areas of the tongue"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Exposure to pollutants may affect immunity
The study looked at two groups of children in the Faroe Islands, which are located in the North Atlantic and where traditional diets may include whale blubber contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). Blood and milk samples taken during pregnancy from the mothers were analyzed to determine the children's prenatal PCB exposure. After routine childhood vaccinations against tetanus and diphtheria, the two groups of children were examined at age 18 months and 7 years, and blood samples were examined for tetanus and diphtheria antibodies. The findings showed an association between increased PCB contamination and lowered antibody response to the vaccines. At 18 months, the diphtheria antibody concentration decreased by 24 percent for each doubling of the PCB exposure. At 7 years, the tetanus antibody response showed the strongest response and decreased by 16 percent for each doubling of the prenatal exposure. "Our study raises concern that exposure to PCB and similar compounds may make childhood vaccinations less efficient," said Philippe Grandjean , adjunct professor at Harvard School of Public Health and co-author of the paper. Exposed children may also be more susceptible to infections in general, he said......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Cigarette smoke blocks cell repair mechanism
While some cells nonetheless rally and are able to fix their damaged DNA, a number of others become unable to access their own cellular first aid kit, as per findings from a UF study published recently (Aug. 21) in the journal Oncogene. If they survive long enough to divide and multiply, they pass along their mutations, acquiring cancerous properties. Past research has been controversial. Tobacco smoke contains dozens of cancer-causing chemicals, but until more recently a number of studies found only weak correlations between smoking and breast cancer risk, or none at all. Those findings are increasingly being challenged by newer studies that are focusing on more than just single chemical components of tobacco, as past research often has done. In the UF study, scientists instead used a tar that contains all of the 4,000 chemicals found in cigarette smoke. "Our study suggests the mechanism by which this may be happening," said Satya Narayan, Ph.D., an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at UF's College of Medicine. "This is basically the important finding in our case: We are now describing how cigarette smoke condensate, which is a surrogate for cigarette smoke, can cause DNA damage and can block the DNA repair of a cell or compromise the DNA repair capacity of a cell. That can be detrimental for the cell and can lead to transformation or carcinogenesis"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source No More Than One Strokes
The risk of a second stroke is especially high among members of the largest and fastest-growing subgroup of Latinos in the United States: Mexican-Americans. The new study finds that they are more likely than their non-Latino white neighbors to suffer another stroke in the first two years after living through one. The study, published in the Annals of Neurology by a team from the University of Michigan Stroke Program in conjunction with colleagues in Texas, highlights the importance of what doctors call 'secondary prevention.'. In other words, those who live through a stroke should get special attention from their physicians and other health professionals to reduce their risk of having another one. And, because of their extra risk of suffering another stroke, those efforts should be especially stepped up in Mexican-Americans, the researchers say. "This finding completes a picture that has been taking shape through research on ethnic differences in stroke," says lead author Lynda Lisabeth, Ph.D. "We know that Mexican-Americans have a higher overall risk of stroke, tend to have strokes starting at younger ages, and generally have a better chance of surviving their first stroke, compared with non-Hispanic whites. Now, by finding this higher rate of recurrence, we have a better idea of the overall burden of stroke in this population"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Protein That Protect Breast Cancer Tumors
Researchers at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered a new biological marker in tumors that can help indicate whether a woman's breast cancer will respond to the most commonly prescribed chemotherapy drugs. Amy S. Lee, Ph.D., professor of biochemistry and molecular biology in the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, isolated the gene for the GRP78 protein (78-kDA glucose-regulated protein) in 1980. It normally helps protect cells from dying, particularly when they are under stress from a lack of glucose. In her current research, Lee finds that breast cancer tumors with high levels of GRP78 are protected from a common chemotherapy regimen based on Adriamycin, a topoisomerase inhibitor. Her findings are published as a "Priority Report" in the August 15 issue of Cancer Research. "The importance of this study is in its potential to help clinicians who treat cancer," Lee says. "It will help sort out the patients who won't respond to particular treatment regimens and will have a higher chance of cancer recurrence"......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source Ozone forecaster unveiled
With the intent to not only increase public awareness, but also help Texas manage air quality issues, the Institute for Multi-dimensional Air Quality Studies (IMAQS) at UH has been operating an air quality forecasting system for a year that has been tested, fine-tuned and now determined ready for public use. Over the course of this past year, the system has been expanded and improved to serve the entire eastern half of Texas, including the Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas. "Our ozone forecaster is more localized than others and goes into further detail," said Daewon Byun, director of IMAQS and a professor in UH's geosciences department. "For instance, while the ozone conditions may be rated unhealthy in downtown Houston on a given day, suburbs like Sugar Land and The Woodlands may actually be experiencing a good day that still is safe for outdoor activities in those specific areas. Other days, the opposite is true with downtown-area ozone levels being lower than in certain suburbs." By clicking on the local, regional or national maps at http://www.imaqs.uh.edu/ozone_forecast.htm, the public can obtain a map view of daily maximum ozone levels color-coded with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health alert index. Also included are links to animations of a two-day forecast in one-hour increments. These maps and animations can help individuals, especially those with respiratory problems, plan their day's outside activities. The Web site is updated daily with the most recent 48-hour local, regional and national forecasts, providing graphical analysis of the onset, intensity, duration and area of poor air quality conditions via access to hourly data from 165 East Texas air pollution monitors. The near real-time hourly air pollution and meteorological data, air quality indices and animations from 3-D simulations performed by IMAQS use the EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system co-developed by Byun in 1999 while at the EPA before coming to UH......... Posted by: Tyler Permalink Source Anxiety before surgery complicates recovery in children
The study is important, said lead author, Zeev Kain, M.D., professor in the Departments of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and the Yale Child Study Center, because more than five million children in the United States undergo surgery every year and up to 45 percent experience significant stress and anxiety previous to surgery. In his five-year study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Kain and his team recruited 241 children aged five- to 12-years-old who were scheduled to undergo elective tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. The personality characteristics of the children and their parents were assessed before the surgery. All of the children were admitted to a research unit at Yale following the surgery and postoperative pain and analgesic consumption were recorded every hour. After 24 hours in the hospital, the children were discharged and followed up at home for the next 14 days. The scientists observed that anxious children experienced more problems emerging from anesthesia and significantly more pain both during the hospital stay and over the first three days at home. During home recovery anxious children also consumed significantly more codeine and acetaminophen and had a higher occurence rate of postoperative anxiety and sleep problems......... Posted by: Sean Permalink Source |
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