Human embryonic stem cells may promise medical advances
...ced blastocyst resulting from an egg that began to spontaneously divide? To support their claim that the resulting stem cells came from the transplanted nucleus, Hwang's team completed DNA fingerprinting analysis, and also checked the expression of imprinted genes. The results were consistent with stem cells resul...Early treatment can prevent severe vision loss in premature infants
...ly unpredictable. In many infants, he says, it can spontaneously improve and spare the child's vision, while in others, it can suddenly progress and result in blindness. For the study, the researchers identified 499 out of 828 infants diagnosed at birth with ROP as being at higher than usual risk for vision loss,...Little-studied waves in the heart may be cause of defibrillation failure
...s created under experimental conditions also occur spontaneously following defibrillation. Future studies based on this research will be conducted to better understand how to manage these waves, the effect of anti-arrhythmic drugs on them, and whether these findings could be used to improve the efficiency of card...Breast cancer can be reversed in laboratory mice, scientists report
...ete remission, a substantial number of the cancers spontaneously recurred over periods of up to a year, Chodosh reported. This finding is important since it replicates the natural history of human breast cancer -- many women, after apparently successful treatment, harbor residual tumor cells that eventually give...Beyond biology: Simple system yields custom-designed proteins
...long. When cells make them, these long chains fold spontaneously into complex three-dimensional shapes that fit like puzzle pieces with other molecules and give proteins their unique abilities. There are 20 different amino acids, so the number of possible combinations is enormous. However, the vast majority of the...Clay may have aided formation of primordial cells
...tions, are exposed to more acidic conditions, they spontaneously assemble into vesicles," said Szostak. "This reaction has a long lag period, and some sort of nucleation surface is required to trigger the process. We reasoned that if the right kind of mineral surface was present, this lag phase would be eliminated...Common genetic damages in non-dividing cells lead to the creation of mutant proteins
... one of the four amino-acid bases (A, T, G, and C) spontaneously changes to uracil (U). This common substitution causes genetic miscoding that can lead to TM and the manufacture of mutant proteins during transcription. A second type of genetic damage is caused by 8-oxoguanine, another base substitution that fre...Purdue researchers solve decades-old corn, sorghum problem
...etic mechanism that causes dwarf sorghum plants to spontaneously revert to a taller form. In corn, the normal gene Br2 produces a p-glycoprotein, and the researchers found that a mutation in this gene is responsible for the altered growth of the dwarf plant. They also found that the dwarf mutants, while shorter th...New gene for rare inherited paralysis may aid other spinal cord research, too
...esearchers believe that the same mutation occurred spontaneously in both, and likely causes the disease in other families and even in patients who have no family history of the disease. Although more study is needed to understand exactly how the single-nucleotide mutation leads to a dysfunctional protein and there...Young sea animals clone themselvescentury-old debate halted
...reports have observed that invertebrate larvae can spontaneously clone but Eaves and Palmer discovered this trait in three new echinoderm groups--sea cucumbers, sand dollars, and sea urchins--offering surprising new insight about chordate evolution. Larval cloning represents an intriguing new dimension to inverteb...Respiratory manifestations may be secondary to inflammation in cystic fibrosis patients
...ts showed distinct profiles of cytokine production spontaneously and in the presence of LPS, as well as differences in the response to dexamethasone, supporting the view that the local environment may modify the functional properties of the cells. In addition, comparisons of cytokine production by circulating neut...Fears of second-hand smoke confirmed
...formation of apoptotic bodies. Apoptosis may occur spontaneously or in response to specific stimuli such as heat stress, radiation, steroids, and oxidative stress. A New Study Because oxidative stress and apoptosis are implicated in numerous processes, including aging, inflammation, and carcinogenesis, it is reas...Born shy, always shy? Temperamental differences may last throughout life, brain study suggests
...bjects, and situations, while uninhibited children spontaneously approach them. "Now we're suggesting that that same link continues through life," said lead author Carl Schwartz of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. "We found that individual differences in temperament are associated with ...Gene therapy grows new auditory hair cells in mammals
...e the discovery, in the late 1980s, that birds can spontaneously regenerate damaged hair cells, scientists have been trying to find a way to induce the replacement of lost hair cells in mammals. U-M scientists have now accomplished this goal by inserting a gene called Math1 into non-sensory epithelial cells lini...Scientists observe nanosize microtubules 'treadmilling' across plant cells
...nimal cells, these hollow rods of protein assemble spontaneously and carry out a number of important functions. Some act as miniature girders that support the cell, while others form tracks that transport vital cellular cargo or guide the separation of chromosomes during cell division. In animal cells, microtubule...DNA-based vaccine triples survival for dogs with melanoma
...ncer diagnoses. It is highly aggressive, occurring spontaneously in the mouth, nail bed and foot pad. CMM is most s... was 389 days. "Like humans, dogs develop melanoma spontaneously through an interaction of their genes with the environment," said Jedd D. Wolchok, MD, PhD, an oncol...Grape seed extract may be useful supplement to blunt hypertension in postmenopausal women
...sensitive hypertension in young, estrogen-depleted spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). In the current study thi... CA. Methodology The ovaries were removed from spontaneously hypersensitive rats at three weeks of age and put on a phytoestrogen free (PE) diet containing high ...The hormone ethylene is necessary for plant resistance
...ch were insensitive to ethylene. These plants were spontaneously diseased and wilted when grown in ordinary compost. Various fungi and fungi-like microorganisms in the compost attacked the ethylene-insensitive tobacco. These microorganisms do not usually cause diseases in unmodified plants. Furthermore, various t...JCI Table of Contents, March 14, 2003
...ene into mice of the NOD genetic background, which spontaneously developdiabetes at a high frequency. As they repor...819). Theyfound that during acute crisis, patients spontaneously mobilize significantnumbers of progenitors with multiple-lineage and repopulation potential intothe ...Study may help explain sunlight's role in melanoma development, have screening implications
...n the treated mice compared with melanomas arising spontaneously in the absence of such exposure. The researchers found targeting of the Rb pathway, either by an increase in CDK6 expression or a loss of p16INK4a, in the melanomas that developed on mice treated with a single exposure of ultraviolet light - essenti...