Muscles are smarter than you think
...'Chloride ions play an important role in muscle by dampening the excitability of the surface membrane and T-system, ensuring that they only respond when stimulated by nerve signals and do not become spontaneously excited,' Professor Stephenson said. 'When a muscle is worked hard, potassium ions come out of the...JCI Table of Contents, November 3, 2003
...osclerosis TGF-beta inhibits atherosclerosis by dampening T cell activation, which suggests that inhibition ...d suggest that TGF-beta reduces atherosclerosis by dampening T cell activation. Inhibition of T cell activation may therefore represent a strategy for anti-ather...Scientists map signaling molecule crucial to survival, disease
...phorylation can cause diseases such as diabetes by dampening the cellular effects of insulin. "This finding will allow us for the first time to quickly identify all the changes in protein phosphorylation that occur in a cell," said Kevan Shokat, PhD, professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF an...Scientists find what type of genes affect longevity
...s controlling the cellular stress response, and by dampening the activity of specific life-shortening genes. "This study tells us that there many genes that affect lifespan, each on its own having only a small effect," said Cynthia Kenyon, PhD, UCSF professor of biochemistry and senior author on a paper in Na...Gene enhances prefrontal function at a price
...e dopamine activity in the striatum indirectly, by dampening prefrontal dopamine activity. A resulting weak prefrontal signal-to-noise ratio gets telegraphed to the lower brain areas by other neurons projecting from the prefrontal cortex, disinhibiting the dopamine neurons projecting to the striatum, the rese...'Scientific balancing act' dominates AAAS top ten list of science policy stories for 2002
...ines created before 9 pm August 9, 2001, has had a dampening effect on stem cell research in the United States. Less than a half-dozen of the purported 78 embryonic stem cell lines identified by the National Institutes of Health as meeting the President's policy guidelines are considered viable for research, a...New molecular key to disposal of dying cells
...not been identified. Mer might also be involved in dampening the body's inflammatory response. "We believe Mer is involved in down-regulating pro-inflammatory cytokines. And the process of clearing apoptotic cells is a signal to down-regulate inflammation," Matsushima said. "It's very exciting to see a real ph......t in kinase inhibitors that could treat cancer by dampening overactive enzyme activity often involved in uncontrolled tumor growth, Shokat says. Shokat is confident that mutant kinases in animals will prove useful for screening such drugs. "In our experiments, we essentially identify potential drugs to...A few gut parasites could do you the world of good
...utbacteria, again with the idea that they may have dampening effects on the immunesystem. However, there is still a long way to go before doses of worms orbacteria emerge as an accepted treatment for inflammatory bowel disease. Largercontrolled trials are needed to show that the results obtained so far...... colleagues think that certain fatty acids work by dampening downthe damaging effects of the immune system. The next stage is to find out whether the treatment will be effective in peoplewith MS. MS patients have already been recruited for a double blind clinicaltrial to be conducted at St Thomas' Hospital s...