UF scientists reverse muscle contractions in mouse model of muscular dystrophy
... every 8,000 people and causes skeletal muscles to lose the ability to relax once they contract. "One of the principal manifestations of the disease is myotonia, or muscle hyperexcitability," said Maurice Swanson, Ph.D., the paper's senior author and a professor of molecular genetics and microbiology a...Yale biomedical engineers receive prestigious Early Career Awards
...er increased IOP, nerve damage, and ultimately may lose their sight," said Lavik of the rationale for her project. "By developing a long term delivery system, we seek to ease this problem and lay the foundation for the delivery of other drugs in the eye." Tarek Fahmy received the award for his project......reater the risk. We know that obese asthmatics who lose weight have large improvements in their asthma," says asthma project leader Dr Michael Rolph. Various triggers such as dust mites and pollen bring on asthma attacks, which are characterized by inflammation of the airways, a tightening of the surrou...One therapeutic dose of radiation causes 30 percent spongy bone loss in mice
...y applied to humans. However, both mice and humans lose bone after radiation exposure, so the results rais...he risk of fracture by 200%, he said. Astronauts lose 2% of bone mass for each month they are exposed to the effects of microgravity. So far, astronauts h...Cell survival depends on chromosome integrity
... and temperature and to spontaneously break and/or lose chromosomes. In humans, the loss or breakage of chromosomes can cause cells to lose control of when and if they are supposed to divide, becoming cancerous. Nearly every human cell c...Avoiding punishment is its own reward
...pated in the study, during which they could either lose or win one dollar in an instrumental choice task. During the experimental trials, participants selected one of two fractal images presented on a screen. After a fractal was chosen, it became brighter, and four seconds later the participant got one of...Protein tied to usher syndrome may be hearing's 'Missing Link'
...may help us figure out why some people temporarily lose their hearing after being exposed to loud noise, only to regain it a day or two later. "These findings offer a more precise picture of the complicated processes involved with our sense of hearing," says Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D., director of the NIH. ...Finding a cellular Neverland: How stem cells stay childlike
...ed that a few ES cells in a culture dish tended to lose stemness and evolve into muscle cell precursors, most likely goaded by a muscle differentiation factor known as BMP. But when those maturing cells were forced to produce Nanog, they reverted to their nave state and regained pluripotency. Atsushi S...Chewing up a key regulator of fat synthesis keeps mice lean despite a high-fat diet
...velop type 2 diabetes within 10 years, unless they lose 5 to 7 percent of their body weight--about 10 to 15 pounds for someone weighing 200 pounds. Defining how molecules regulating fat storage interact could lead to novel measures to curb obesity. Further evidence linking TRB3 to disease comes from recen...Healthy coral reefs of Madagascar resisting damage from climate change
...ows the need to protect what's out there before we lose biodiversity that we never even knew existed."...CHAVI announces international search for genes affecting HIV response
...us down to almost undetectable levels while others lose control of it quickly." The newly organized group, called EuroCHAVI, will recruit 600 patients from nine cohorts. "This will be is the largest cohort assembled for large-scale analysis of genetic differences among HIV-infected patients," said Amalio ...New research clarifies roles of calcium, vitamin D, and protein in bone health, fracture risk
...Congress on Osteoporosis in Toronto, Canada. Bones lose calcium as they age, making them vulnerable to osteoporosis and fractures. "We found that people who take just dietary calcium, or a combination of dietary calcium with supplements, have better bone density than those who take supplements alone," ex...Study shows that genetic quality of sperm deteriorates as men age
...ns with age, as sperm counts decline and the sperm lose motility and their ability to swim in a straight line. In the current study, the researchers analyzed DNA damage, chromosomal abnormalities and gene mutations in semen samples from the same subjects 97 healthy, non-smoking LLNL employees and retire...... immune system before organ transplants tended to lose bone mass. Those patients were also at increased risk of bone fractures, said first author Winslow, who led the study as an HHMI predoctoral fellow in Crabtree's lab. Winslow is now working as a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of HHMI investigator Ty...JCI table of contents, June 1, 2006
...l to develop severe hypoglycemia in which they may lose consciousness, experience convulsions, fall into a coma, and suffer brain damage. This failure to respond to hypoglycemia has become a major limitation to effective insulin therapy in type 1 diabetes. In a study appearing in the June issue of the Jou...DNA: Bacteria's survival ration
...f these genes, the bacteria cannot consume DNA and lose their competitive advantage. "The gene family is found in many other species," the authors reported, "suggesting that the use of DNA as a nutrient may be a widespread phenomenon." The concept of nutritional competence could have applications to medic...Purdue researchers find 'switch' for skeletal-muscle atrophy
... from diseases that cause them to be bedridden and lose muscle mass, or sometimes limbs, due to atrophy, said Amber Pond, a research scientist in the school's Department of Basic Medical Sciences. "The weight loss and muscle wasting that occurs in patients with cancer or other diseases seriously compromis...Genetic tug of war determines sexual differentiation
...er of the international research team. "If XY mice lose Fgf9, they develop ovaries, while XX mice that lose Wnt4 develop incomplete testes. This suggests that vertebrate sex determination results from the int...How ancient whales lost their legs, got sleek and conquered the oceans
...ould have caused whales, dolphins and porpoises to lose their hind limbs. More than 50 million years ago the ancestors of whales and dolphins were four-footed land animals, not unlike large dogs. They became the sleek swimmers we recognize today during the next 15 million years, losing their hind limbs in...Scientists uncover new clues to limb formation (and loss) in some sea mammals
...al stages of limb formation. "That's why dolphins lose their 'legs,'" he says. In whales, however, the story is more complex. Between 41 million and 50 million years ago, whales' hind limbs did shrink greatly as the former land animals began a return to the sea. But their legs showed no change in the ba...