JCI Table of Contents -- July 2, 2007
... CARDIOLOGY Mending a broken heart: Dysferlin repairs cardiac cell rupture Kevin Campell and fellow University of Iowa researchers have shown that a protein known as dysferlin plays a critical role in repairing the plasma membranes of cardiac muscle cells that are torn as a result of strain-induced i...Description of a gene implicated in the development of Fanconi anemia and predisposition to cancer
...ene that acts directly on a DNA level and promotes repairs in cases of genetic mutations....Baumann Lab defines proteins that distinguish chromosome ends from DNA double-strand breaks
...strand breaks and that the cellular machinery that repairs DNA breaks does not act on telomeres. But how repair factors are prevented from acting at chromosome ends has been a hotly debated issue. Over the past decade, several telomeric complexes and structures have been identified and proposed to protect ch...When smell cells fail they call in stem cell reserves
...r death. To figure out how the olfactory system repairs severely damaged nerve cells, Reed's team exposed mouse olfactory nerves to a cloud of toxic methyl-bromide gas. Methyl bromide kills not only olfactory nerve cells but also neighboring, non-nerve cells in the nasal passage. Three weeks after chemica......lf-assembling nanofibers can be used to jump start repairs of damaged cells and restore functions. He also shares predictions on the long-term potential of using nanotechnology to treat specific medical conditions. The debut issue of the monthly NanoFrontiers newsletter explores several developments in nan...DNA ends: Common tool, different job
Every time a cell repairs or replicates its DNA, the resulting single strand is wrapped up by a dedicated protein complex. In eukaryotes or organisms whose cells have a nucleus, this job is handled by a tripartite complex called replication protein A (RPA). Researchers at the...International study points to new breast cancer-susceptibility gene
...RCA2 in key areas of the cell nucleus, where BRCA2 repairs damaged DNA," Xia said. Mutations in BRCA2 can prevent such repairs from being made, which can lead to runaway cell growth. If BRCA2 is normal, but PALB2 is defective, ...Blame myelin for many neuropsychiatric disorders
... brain 's development and constantly maintains and repairs it as we age. While more work needs to be done to fully understand the role of nonsynaptic cholinergic effects on brain development, said Bartzokis, his hypotheses can easily be tested through in vivo imaging of the brain to study the breakdown and...Novel regulatory mechanism identified for key tumor suppressor p53
...kind or another, whether inherited or acquired. If repairs cannot be made, p53 commands the cells with damaged DNA to self-destruct so they are no longer a danger to the body. This powerful ability of the p53 protein to shut down cell division and induce cell death points to why the availability of a repres...UC given $1 million to develop skin cancer prevention treatment
...epartment. "We have already shown that alpha-MSH repairs DNA damage caused by excessive sun exposure, thus reversing the cancer-causing effects of UV radiation," says Abdel-Malek, who has studied this phenomenon in isolated human melanocytes, the cells that produce the tanning pigment melanin. Abdel-Male...Genetic repair mechanism clears the way for sealing DNA breaks
...restore the double helix. The enzyme, DNA ligase, repairs the millions of DNA breaks generated during the normal course of a cell's life, for example, linking together the abundant DNA fragments formed during replication of the genetic material in dividing cells. "Our study shows that DNA ligase switches f...Heart smart: new drug improves blood flow
...r results show that the drug directly binds to and repairs the damaged enzyme. And as the number of free radicals increases, the drug starts working harder," says Dr. Schmidt. The results have been published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation and the September issue of Nature Reviews/Drug Discovery ...Unusual mechanism keeps repair protein accurate
...amaged genes uses an unusual mechanism to keep its repairs accurate. The protein, called DNA polymerase lambda, is one of a group of proteins known as DNA polymerases that are vital for accurately making and repairing DNA. But while other DNA-repair proteins insure their accuracy with the help of so-ca...Whether in mice or men, all cells age the same, Stanford study finds
...t the cell has a molecular homeowner that keeps up repairs until a predetermined time, when the owner picks up the welcome mat and moves out. Once that process kicks off, the decay happens as a matter of course. The homeowners in tortoise cells stick around for hundreds of years delaying the decay, while tho...U-M scientists target key cells and signals that trigger pulmonary fibrosis
...m scar tissue and help heal the damaged lung. Once repairs are complete, chemical signaling molecules called prostaglandins shut down the influx of fibrocytes and turn off the fibrotic response. "In pulmonary fibrosis, for reasons we don't understand, this fibrotic or scar-forming process never shuts down," ...Heal thyself: Systems biology model reveals how cells avoid becoming cancerous
... perform a variety of housekeeping chores while it repairs its DNA. If true, the model may demystify the long-standing question of why DNA damage influences the expression of hundreds of genes not involved in the actual repair process. "What we quickly realized is that we had uncovered not just a model of ...Bedsores and bald hides: Novel roles revealed for a 'scaffolding' protein
...ay 18 issue of Nature, sheds light on how the body repairs wounds and may have implications for preventing or treating chronic wounds such as pressure or bed sores arising from long periods of immobility. Along with the pain and scarring, bed sores significantly increase health care costs in nursing homes an...JCI Table of Contents, April 13, 2006
...GY When sticks and stones break your bones, PlGF repairs them Each year, some 6.2 million Americans will suffer a broken bone, and while the repair of a fracture is generally a rapid and efficient process, for 10% of patients the fracture takes longer than expected to heal or fails to heal in a reasonabl...Missing breast cancer genes may soon be discovered
...are caused by a number of things the way that DNA repairs and maintains itself, or past exposure to a harmful substance such as a virus. Alternatively it may be a combination of both. This for example could explain why some smokers get lung cancer and some don't there must be a combination of faulty gene ...Little known DNA repair enzyme may be a tumor suppressor gene
.... In fact, failure of these enzymes to make needed repairs to genes can lead to the accumulation of mutations and, eventually, cell death or possibly cancer. However, it appears that the activity of some DNA repair enzymes is more critical than others, particularly in developing embryos. University of Pittsb...