Study begins to reveal clues to the cause and progression of sepsis
...y thought about the role the inflammatory response plays in sepsis was wrong or incomplete. We had thought the inflammatory response to infection was relatively short-lived, just a few days, and that it was similar in patients with similar clinical signs. Instead, we found that the inflammatory response wa...Diverse genetic abnormalities lead to NF-κB activation in multiple myeloma
...cific method of activation, the NF-κB pathway plays a central role in MM pathogenesis and is an excellent target for development of new therapeutics....Bursts of waves drive immune system 'soldiers' toward invaders
...ly, faulty regulation of white blood cell movement plays a role in heart attack - another promising target for applying the new insights of the regulation of cell movement, the authors say. White blood cells, or neutrophils, are the body's first line of defense against potentially harmful microbes, and ...Newly created cancer stem cells could aid breast cancer research
...athologist Tan Ince. Each cancer cell in the tumor plays a specific role, and just a fraction of the cells serve as queens, possessing the unique ability to maintain themselves in an unspecialized state and seed new tumors. These cells can also divide and produce the worker cells that form the bulk of the ...ESF EURYI award winner aims to stop cancer cells reading their own DNA
...focusing on an enzyme called Topoisomerase IB that plays a key role in some of the molecular motors involved in the processes of DNA and RNA copying during cell division. These are responsible for reading the genetic code and making sure it is encoded correctly in the daughter cell. In healthy cells it is ...Genetic variation helps to understand predisposition to schizophrenia
...developing brain. Since the Neuregulin 1 protein plays a key role in brain development and is more abundant in fetal brains, DNA changes that alter the expression of this protein may contribute to schizophrenia by modifying the development and wiring of the brain, Law says. By understanding how this nove...1 of deep ocean's most turbulent areas has big impact on climate
...he U.S. east coast to Canada and on to Europe, and plays a crucial climate role. Oceanographers are working hard to understand how processes in the ocean help to keep the Earths climate stable, St. Laurent said. We are aware that the climate is warming, but we dont yet fully understand how the changes ...Preclinical study links gene to brain aneurysm formation
...ne are markers for vascular disease. The gene also plays an important role in remodeling of blood vessels in response to changes in blood flow. When a vessel experiences increased blood flow, it attempts to reduce the shear stress to even levels by enlarging its luminal caliber through a process known as...Penn researchers discover how key protein stops inflammation
...uitination. While previous studies suggested Bcl-3 plays a role in immunity, this is the first report that Bcl-3 regulates inflammation by blocking ubiquitination. Their findings, published in Science, open new avenues of exploration for developing therapies to treat infectious or inflammatory diseases,...Teamwork between 2 key proteins necessary for normal development and regulation of red blood cells
...opment of mouse embryonic red blood cells. EKLF plays a central role in the developmental regulation of the adult beta-globin gene, and is essential for the maturation and stability of adult red blood cells. KLF2 is a protein crucial for making embryonic red blood cells. If EKLF and KLF2 can turn on t...Multicenter study nets new lung tumor-suppressor gene
...st one or two, Wong says. "This suggests that LKB1 plays a role at major stages of the tumors' development: initiation, differentiation of normal lung cells into cancer cells, and metastasis." An examination of human non-small-cell lung tissue suggests LKB1 mutations play a role there as well. Of 144 sam...MIT study: Maturity brings richer memories
...re, when - emerges gradually during childhood, and plays a critical role in education. The brain systems underlying it have been extensively studied in adults, but until now little was known about how they mature during child development. The MIT study indicates that a more developed prefrontal cortex (P......ident is that the organization of the cell nucleus plays an important role in response to DNA damage. The high-density regions likely are heterochromatin, the parts of the chromosomes where genes are (for the most part) silenced. The low-density regions likely correspond to euchromatin, the parts of the ch...A low expression of MX2 gene exists in the white blood cells of narcoleptics
...ibonucleic acid (RNA) a nucleic acid polymer that plays several important roles in the processes that translate genetic information from DNA into protein products from 12 patients with narcolepsy with cataplexy and from 12 age- and sex-matched healthy controls. The pooled samples were initially screened...COX-2 inhibitors delay pancreatic cancer precursors in mice
...atic cancers have led researchers to believe COX-2 plays a key role in the development and growth of tumors. To study the effects of COX-2 on PanIN progression, Dr. Eibl and colleagues focused on the KrasG12D mouse, an animal model that mimics the early stages of pancreatic cancer. In the KrasG12D mouse...U-M researchers find family of 'on switches' that cause prostate cancer
... in Ewing's sarcoma. A fused gene combination that plays a role in chronic myelogenous leukemia led researchers to develop the drug Gleevec, which has dramatically improved survival rates for that disease. Chinnaiyan believes the prostate gene fusions will eventually lead to similar treatments for prosta...Molecule blocks gene, sheds light on liver cancer
...ther tissues. Our findings indicate that miR-21 plays a fundamental role in tumor-cell behavior and cancer development, Patel says, and this may also be relevant to other tumors in which miR-21 is overexpressed. If this work is reproduced in investigations of other cancers, it could be a big step forwar...Rare example of Darwinism seen in action
...volution of IGF2 in the fish. This shows that IGF2 plays a vital role in not just mammals, but in fish as well. The researchers found that the biggest genetic changes were in those species of the minnows that had developed placentas, supporting the Darwinian theory of natural selection. The study also...ESA mission highlighted at remote sensing conference
...ge of the total global water budget, soil moisture plays an important role in the global water cycle as it ...ving the currents in our oceans. Ocean circulation plays a crucial role in moderating the climate by, for example, transporting heat from the Equator to the ...Genomics study provides insight into the evolution of unique human traits
...ty for endurance running. AQP7 , or aquaporin 7, plays a role in transporting water and glycerol across membranes. Therefore, it may facilitate the mobilization of glycogen (energy) stores during long periods of intense exercise; it may also play a role in dissipating excess heat through sweating. The ...