New research suggests previously unrecognized mechanism by which blood vessels are patterned
... about one percent of live births and are the most common malformations in newborns. Researchers from the U...he outflow vessels of the heart, which resembled a common form of CHD in children and caused perinatal deaths of PlexinD1 deficient mice. The type of CHD caus...UCSD biologists discover cell's defense mechanism against class of disease-causing bacterial toxins
...y bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, the most common cause of hospital-acquired infections, which affects some 500,000 patients each year in U.S. hospitals, and Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacterium responsible for seven million cases of otitis media in children and 500,000 cases of pneumonia in chil...Molecular traffic cop directs cellular signals
...sm and nucleus. When cells were stimulated with a common growth factor, hSef interacted with activated ERK in the cytoplasm. The inhibitor was only switched on when the Ras/ERK MAP kinase pathway was activated. Interestingly, activated hSef works not by directly inhibiting the activity of ERK, but by prev...Gene therapy alternative to calcium channel blockers
...causes of cardiovascular disease." Arrhythmias are common disorders affecting the regular rhythmic beating o... Society, sudden cardiac death for which the most common cause is arrhythmia is a leading cause of death in the United States, claiming more than 400,000 li...Triple-vaccine strategy stimulates strong HIV-specific immune response in monkeys
...mune response. A number of these vaccines based on common strains of human adenoviruses, including some against HIV, have returned positive results in early clinical trials. An unaddressed problem with this vaccine-development approach, however, is that many people are exposed to adenoviruses in childhood a...Study suggests first molecular target to halt spread of HPV
...f the journal Gene Therapy. HPV is one of the most common causes of sexually-transmitted infection in the world. Types of HPV can cause fast-growing lesions such as genital and planter warts, and a number of HPV types are considered to be "high-risk" for development of cervical dysplasia, a known precursor ...Asian bird flu became highly pathogenic through continued circulation and gene swapping
...nt to an important family of drugs. In fact, the common human influenza H3N2 has been found inside pigs in southern China, according to the St. Jude researchers. If H5N1 infects a pig harboring H3N2, these two viruses might swap genes. The resulting "recombinant" virus might be particularly dangerous to h...Water study yields a few surprises for New England
...ell water samples. These chemicals were much more common in wells in eastern New England than in wells sampled in other parts of the country. This is likely due to the extensive use of MTBE in gasoline and chlorination of city water supplies in this region. "These results indicate the need for regular te...Human periodontal ligament stem cells isolated for the first time
...tential" to regenerate the periodontal ligament, a common target of advanced gum (periodontal) disease. This enthusiasm is based on follow up experiments, in which the researchers implanted the human adult stem cells into rodents, and most of the cells differentiated into a mixture of periodontal ligament ...U of T microbiologists achieve results with pattern recognition software
...is technique is a reliable alternative to the more common method of causing mutations by radiation, because the mutations are engineered rather than random. The 700 yeast strains developed by Hughes' team are now available commercially to other researchers and 300 more strains are under development. Yeast ...Tracing a killer's path in Lou Gehrig's disease
...exclusively within affected tissues represents the common property of these mutants that initiates a cascade of damage," they wrote. In a second paper, Robert H. Brown, Jr., and his colleagues shed light on a specific mechanism by which the mutant SOD1 kills spinal cord neurons once it reaches their mitocho...Wistar-discovered antibody will help diagnose appendicitis
...ans to detect the infection with a gamma camera, a common piece of equipment in hospital nuclear medicine departments. The FDA approved NeutroSpec for use in patients five years of age or older with equivocal symptoms of appendicitis. It is estimated that about half of the 700,000 patients in the United Sta...Animal research suggests plant estrogens in soy do not increase breast cancer risk
...ternative to traditional hormone therapy. The most common form of hormone therapy, estrogen plus a progestin, has been shown to increase risk of breast cancer. Soy and some other plants contain estrogen-like compounds called isoflavones or phytoestrogens. These plant estrogens are thousands of times weake...Milk consumption and calcium intake associated with lower colorectal cancer risk
...er Institute . Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer worldwide. Researchers have hypothesized that the different rates of colorectal cancer incidence in various countries may be related to diet. Although high calcium intake has been shown to inhibit colon cancer in animal experiments, these effe...Other highlights in the July 7 JNCI
... the genes studied. These adducts, which were more common when the cells were treated with glycidamide, coincided with the locations of specific gene mutations. The authors conclude that acrylamide's mutagenicity is based on the ability of its metabolite glycidamide to form DNA adducts. Contact: Greg Hughes...National study shows dog and cat allergens are universally present in U.S. homes
...h an increased risk of allergic sensitization were common even in homes without the pets. This report by Arbes et al., which will appear in the July 2004 issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, is one of a series of allergen reports from the National Survey of Lead and Allergens in Housing...JCI table of contents, 1 July 2004
...ite A decrease in food ingestion and anorexia are common symptoms during injury, illness, or inflammation. A key to the link between food intake and illness may be a recently identified molecule called ghrelin, which has previously been shown to play a part in maintaining metabolic energy balance. Now Denn...National Parkinson Foundation designates UNC as 'Center of Excellence'
...e than 300. Parkinson's disease is the second most common age-related disorder after Alzheimer's, and the number of people with Parkinson's is expected to increase dramatically over the next 10-12 years as the population of people aged 65 and older expands. The NPF notified UNC of the designation in a lette...Cancer gene MYC emerging as key research target
... MYC mutations are associated with a wide range of common cancer types, including breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancers, and melanoma. Recent studies have determined that the MYC protein, known as a transcription factor, binds to about 15 percent of all genes. Scientists had long believed that when MY......e of several types of cancer, including relatively common forms of colon cancer. The researchers, led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Paul Modrich, Ph.D., at Duke, reported their findings in the July 2, 2004, issue of the journal Molecular Cell. Joint first authors on the paper were Leonid D...