Gene clusters predict atherosclerosis severity, susceptibility
DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke University Medical Center researchers have identified specific clusters of genes within human aortas that appear to predict with great specificity which patients may be at highest risk for developing atherosclerosis, as well as the severity of the disease.... ...For the researchers, this is an important first of many steps toward developing highly individualized approaches to...Females may be more susceptible to overindulge 'sweet tooth' cravings than males
BETHESDA, Md. September 23, 2004 It is well known that obesity has reached epidemic proportions. As waistbands expand, so do the number of health gurus heralding the benefits of portion control and exercise to keep obesity at bay. But with some studies indicating that the rate of obesity is greater in women than in men, could it be that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to these obesi...USC study links historical increases in life span to lower childhood exposure to infection
Starting in the mid-1850s, humans began living longer due, researchers believe, to improvements in living conditions, nutrition, income levels and medicine.... ...But two USC gerontologists have found an invisible cause that could have important implications for modern-day health care.... ...In a paper published in the Sept. 17 issue of the journal Science, Caleb Finch and Eileen Crimmins firm...Common cold virus can cause polio in mice when injected into muscles
DURHAM, N.C. -- Virologists at Duke University Medical Center have discovered that, under the right conditions, a common cold virus closely related to poliovirus can cause polio in mice. ......The researchers injected a cold virus called Coxsackievirus A21 into mice that were engineered to be susceptible to this particular virus. However, instead of developing a cold, the mice unexpectedly displa...Muscles are smarter than you think
Scientists at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, and at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, have discovered the mechanism by which acidity helps prevent muscle fatigue. ...... The discovery runs in the face of the previously held belief among physiologists and athletes that acidity, through a build up of lactic acid, is a major cause of muscle fatigue....... Professors George Stephenso...Newly discovered protein may be key to muscular dystrophy
A defect in the action of a newly discovered protein may play a central role in muscular dystrophy, a disease of progressive muscle degeneration with no known cure. ...... Scientists at UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center discovered in an animal model of the disease that during periods of intense muscle activity, muscles remain excited too long and degenerate if the protein fails t...Muscling their way into the food chain: Zebra mussels alter fish populations in the Hudson River
In 1991, an exotic bivalve called the zebra mussel moved into the Hudson River. Over the past two decades, the prolific species has colonized habitats with hard sediments, becoming the most abundant animal in the river's freshwater reaches. As competitors in the aquatic food chain, scientists have long speculated that zebra mussels may impact fish. A recent Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquat...Loss of skeletal muscle tissue, termed cachexia, occurs in over half of cancer patients and, rather than tumor burden, is the direct cause of nearly one-third of cancer deaths. There are several regulatory proteins that are released from immune cells are known to be involved in the development of cachexia. These proteins are called cytokines and include TNF-a and IFN-g. The proteins in the musc...Gene therapy reaches muscles throughout the body and reverses muscular dystrophy in animal model
Researchers have found a delivery method for gene therapy that reaches all the voluntary muscles of a mouse including heart, diaphragm and limbs and reverses the process of muscle-wasting found in muscular dystrophy.... ... "We have a clear 'proof of principle' that it is possible to deliver new genes body-wide to all the striated muscles of an adult animal. Finding a...Study helps explain island populations' susceptibility to exotic diseases
ANN ARBOR, Mich.---Researchers have shown that Darwin's finches on smaller islands in the Galapagos archipelago have weaker immune responses to disease and foreign pathogens---findings that could help explain why island populations worldwide are particularly susceptible to disease. ... ...A paper, written by University of Michigan researcher Johannes Foufopoulos, an assistant professor at the Sch...Gene that controls susceptibility to tuberculosis discovered
Montreal, May 13, 2003 Investigators at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) have identified a gene that regulates the susceptibility to tuberculosis. This finding is published in this week's edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences....... Tuberculosis, an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium tuberculosis, affects approxima...USC researcher named General Motors Cancer Research Scholar
LOS ANGELES, June 29, 2004 Judd Rice, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Keck School of Medicine of USC, has been named one of five General Motors Cancer Research Scholars for 2004.... ...Along with the two-year, $200,000 grant given to Rice, USC/Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center also receives a 2004 or 2005 Gen...New York City study shows newborns more susceptible to pollution than their mothers
A new study of the effects of combustion-related air pollutants in New York City reveals that babies in the womb are more susceptible than their mothers to DNA damage from such pollution. Despite the protection provided by the placenta, which reduces the fetal dose to an estimated one-tenth the dose of the mother, the levels of DNA damage in the newborns were similar to those found in their mothe...Frogs muscle-in on 'wasting' process
Scientific studies of a unique Australian frog could lead to the development of new ways to improve livestock production levels and boost the prospects of maintaining human muscle strength into old age....... According to CSIRO Livestock Industries' (CLI) post-doctoral fellow, Dr Nick Hudson, the green-striped burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata) can remain buried in mud for months in an inac...LARGE protein can overcome defects in some types of muscular dystrophy
Muscular dystrophy is a group of genetic diseases characterized by progressive muscle degeneration. Working with mice with a type of the disease, researchers have found that by expressing an enzyme that attaches sugar molecules to a protein essential for proper muscle structure, they can restore normal muscle function.... ...Interestingly, the scientists found evidence of similar benefits when th...Susceptibility of mice to mousepox offers promise of smallpox protection
...A team of scientists led by a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) international research scholar has discovered the immune system mechanism that causes some mice to be more susceptible to mousepox than others. The discovery could pave the way to better protection for humans against the threat of smallpox, a related virus, as a weapon of bioterrorism. ......HHMI international research schol...U. Iowa muscular dystrophy discovery may lead to new treatment approaches
Expressing high levels of a sugar-adding protein known as LARGE in mice that lack the protein can prevent muscular dystrophy in these animals, according to studies by researchers at the University of Iowa Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine. Furthermore, the research suggests that LARGE protein also can restore normal function to a critical muscle protein that is disrupted by glycos...Gene therapy with growth factor seems promising therapy for incurable muscle disorder ALS
ALS is an incurable paralysing muscle disorder affecting five in every one hundred thousand people. The disease mainly strikes healthy people in the most active period of their life, without any warning or family history. Researchers from VIB (the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology), lead by Prof. Peter Carmeliet (K.U.Leuven) already indicated the importance of the VEGF protein...Male susceptibility to disease may play role in evolution of insect societies
A pair of scientists has proposed a new model for behavioral development among social insects, suggesting that a higher male susceptibility to disease has helped shape the evolution of the insects' behavior. ... What might be called the "sick-male" theory has been proposed by animal behaviorists Sean O'Donnell of the University of Washington and Samuel Beshers of the University of Illinois at Urb...Protein may reduce susceptibility to autoimmune disease
A recent discovery provides new information about critical cellular signals that may be involved in autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and type 1 diabetes. Scientists have identified a protein that appears to regulate the function of the immune cells, called T cells, which contribute to the pathogenesis associated with autoimmune disease. The research is published...Embryonic stem cell - based tissue engineering may help repair damaged heart muscle
NEW YORK--Embryonic stem cells may hold the key to regenerating damaged heart muscle, when transplanted within a 3-dimensional scaffold into the infracted heart, according to a new study coming out in June in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation. In the study, embryonic stem cells were more successful in restoring heart muscle when transplanted within a 3-dimensional matrix into damaged...Muscle-derived cells and gene therapy may cure for post-prostatectomy erectile dysfunction
SAN FRANCISCO, May 11 Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh will present results of three studies that show that gene therapy and injections of muscle-derived cells may be effective treatments for post-prostatectomy erectile dysfunction (ED). Almost 80 percent of men who undergo radical prostatectomies experience ED due to damage to the nerves essential to achieving and maintaining an er...Regeneration of injured muscle from adult stem cells
Skeletal muscle has a remarkable capacity to regenerate following exercise or injury and harbors two different types of adult stem cells to accomplish the job: satellite cells and adult stem cells that can be isolated as side population (SP) cells. A certain group of these stem cells is involved in muscle tissue repair, but is only triggered into the muscle cell development pathway by injury. Th...Treatment stimulates growth and regeneration of injured adult skeletal muscle
Scientists have discovered that a group of chemicals known as Histone Deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors stimulate growth and regeneration of adult skeletal muscle cells by increasing expression of the protein follistatin. The research, published in the May issue of Developmental Cell, may provide new avenues for developing effective means to promote regeneration in muscular dystrophies....... Dr. Vit...MacroPore - adipose-derived cells - potential to engraft & differentiate into heart muscle
San Diego, CA, and Cambridge, MA, April 13, 2004 - MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. (MacroPore; Frankfurt: XMP) (MACP.DE) (XMP:GR) today announced pre-clinical findings that suggest for the first time that adipose-derived regenerative cells have the potential to engraft injured myocardium and express markers consistent with differentiation into cardiac myocytes. These results provide early indication t...USC awarded $3.5 million to study DNA enzyme
... ...The National Cancer Institute has awarded USC scientists $3.5...million for a study of the enzyme that faithfully copies our genetic...information, enabling it to pass from one generation to the next.... ...The grant will fund structural, biochemical and computer studies...designed to reveal how the enzyme, DNA polymerase, makes so...few mistakes.... ..."This is a unique opportunity to ma...UT Southwestern researchers reveal mechanisms of smooth-muscle contraction
DALLAS April 5, 2004 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas are the first to use genetically engineered mice containing a fluorescent molecule to examine in real time the chemical reactions that result in smooth-muscle contraction.... ...Smooth muscle, found in the walls of blood vessels and in internal organs such as lungs, stomach and the bladder, contracts as the end res...Gene variants may increase susceptibility to type 2 diabetes
BETHESDA, MD, Thursday, March 11, 2004 -- International research teams studying two distinct populations have found variants in a gene that may predispose people to type 2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease. The researchers, who collaborated extensively in their work, report their findings in companion articles in the April issue of Diabetes. ...... "This is an outstanding example of...UT Southwestern researchers identify gene as essential for vascular smooth muscle development
DALLAS March 11, 2004 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a major mechanism to explain normal and abnormal smooth muscle growth, a...finding that could help in the development of novel therapeutics for disorders like hypertension and asthma.... ...Their work appears in today's issue of Nature.... ...Smooth muscle cells are essential for the formation and func...USC researchers link unusual DNA structure to cancer
Los Angeles, March 4, 2004 - University of Southern California researchers have discovered an unusual DNA structure in the chromosomes of lymphocytes that appears to create a so-called "fragile site" on the chromosome and to predispose cells carrying it to develop a common form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.... ..."This is the first disease ever to be associated with a deviation from the Watson-Crick...Carbohydrates offer some help in muscle protein synthesis, but not enough for the desired effect
(February 25, 2004) - Bethesda, MD A visit to the meat counter at any supermarket is proof positive that a good number of Americans are avoiding carbohydrates and consuming high levels of protein and fat, in accordance with the Atkins diet. This carbohydrate-free, fat- and protein- rich diet is for those seeking immediate weight loss, which means most of us. ...... But what do others, such as w...USC researchers produce a hairier mouse
Los Angeles, Feb. 23,2004- A transgenic mouse designed to grow more hair than other mice has provided University of Southern California researchers with some surprising results-and insight into the development and regulation of growth in epithelial organs that extend beyond skin and hair....... —now available online—Cheng-Ming Chuong, M.D., Ph.D., professor of pathology at the Keck Scho...Chemical that turns mouse stem cells into heart muscles discovered by Scripps researchers
A group of researchers from The Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology at The Scripps Research Institute and from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) has identified a small synthetic molecule that can control the fate of embryonic stem cells.... ...This compound, called cardiogenol C, causes mouse embryonic stem cells to selectively differentiate into "cardiomyocytes,...Destructive wizardry of Ozz-E3 ligase appears key to building skeletal muscles in embryos and adults
The organization and stability of growing muscles in both embryonic and adult mice depends on the ability of a protein called Ozz to direct the timely destruction of membrane-bound β-catenin, according to scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. β-catenin is one of the key proteins that orchestrates this process. Ozz directs destruction of β-catenin by assembling an ac...Making new muscle: Researchers in Rome produce a mouse that can regenerate its tissues
Rome, February 4, 2004 - Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Rome "La Sapienza" have found a way to restore some of the "regenerative" ability of tissues, which happens naturally in animals at the embryonic stage of development, but is lost shortly after birth. The scientists' work, published this week in ......"Many labs have reported the integr...Running afowl: NU researchers first to measure energy used by leg muscles
01-02-04 - Researchers at Northeastern University today announced that they have demonstrated that, contrary to previous research, swinging the limbs during the act of running requires a significant fraction of energy. In contrast to the established hypothesis, which asserted that force produced when the foot is on the ground (stance-phase) is the only determinant of the energy cost of running, N...Regenerative chemical turns muscle cells into stem cells
A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute has identified a small synthetic molecule that can induce a cell to undergo dedifferentiation--to move backwards developmentally from its current state to form its own precursor cell.... ...This compound, named reversine, causes cells which are normally programmed to form muscles to undergo reverse differentiation--retreat along their dif...Gene differences may alter susceptibility to multiple sclerosis
Columbus, Ohio A tiny difference in a gene may signal that a person is twice as susceptible to multiple sclerosis (MS) as normal. It could also foretell of a more rapidly progressing form of the disease, according to new research at The Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health....... The study focused on a gene known as CD24, which directs the making of a protein found on immu...People with undetermined muscle/bone pain tend to be severely vitamin D deficient
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (Dec. 8, 2003) -- People with persistent, non-specific musculoskeletal pain should be screened regularly for vitamin D deficiency, the leading study in tomorrow's Mayo Clinic Proceedings reports. Research conducted at the University of Minnesota found that 93 percent of all subjects with non-specific musculoskeletal pain were vitamin D deficient.... A study of 150 children...Link between alcohol consumption and muscle damage in females
December 1, 2003 (Bethesda, MD) A common manifestation of alcoholism is the degeneration, or wasting away, of skeletal muscle. The condition, known as alcoholic myopathy, affects up to two-thirds of those who excessively consume alcohol; moreover, women appear to be particularly susceptible. The dominant features of this disorder are cramps, impaired muscle strength, and reduced whole body lean...