Real-time MRI helps doctors assess beating heart in fetus
... knowledge of specifics of a heart's structure and function could help the physician and parents better prepare for surgery on the infant after birth. This technology may also be useful in determining how the heart becomes malformed in the mother's womb." Although further studies will be necessary to build on...National funding goes to Johns Hopkins to advance research on stem cell therapies for heart attack
...ed into another pig's damaged heart restored heart function and repaired damaged heart muscle by 50 percent to 75 percent after just two months of therapy. In March 2005, Hare and other researchers began a Phase I clinical trial to test the safety of injecting adult stem cells at varying doses in patients wh...Myelin suppresses plasticity in the mature brain
... of Neurology and Neurobiology. "Recovery of motor function after serious damage to the mature brain is facilitated by structural and synaptic plasticity." Strittmatter's laboratory studies how myelin in the central nervous system physically limits axonal growth and regeneration after traumatic and ischemic ...Chromium picolinate linked with reduced carbohydrate cravings in people with atypical depression
..."Chromium is an essential trace mineral whose main function is to work with insulin to metabolize carbohydrates, fats and proteins. When chromium is bound to picolinic acid to create chromium picolinate, absorption in the body is significantly improved. Recently the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recogni...Adult stem cells aid recovery in animal model of cerebral palsy
...ickly and significantly improves recovery of motor function in an animal model for the ischemic brain injury t...overy and at whether surviving stem cells actually function as brain cells, networking with other cells by forming points of communication called synapses. Per...New immune cell found to be a key to inflammatory diseases
...infection, and type 2 (TH2), which plays a crucial function in production of B cell antibodies and also is associated with development of allergies. Although TH1 and TH2 are known to produce powerful cytokines - such as interferon-gamma (IFN-g) and allergy-associated interleukin 4 (IL-4), respectively - they ...Researchers shed light on anxiety and alcohol intake
...cted to a central platform. Anxiety is gauged as a function of the amount of time a rat spends in the closed v...europeptide Y (NPY), a molecule that regulates the function of several neurotransmitters and is known to play a role in anxiety and alcohol-drinking behaviors, ...American Thoracic Society journal news tips for October 2005 (first issue)
...ne year, while airway hyperresponsiveness and lung function were determined in both groups at the start and end of the one-year study. Over the course of the study, the nitric oxide group had 8 severe exacerbations, as compared with 18 in the symptom group. The researchers said that most often physicians look...Mayo Clinic research collaboration discovers why some DNA repair fails
...cting the molecular mechanism by which the aborted function of this repair enzyme attenuates its normal repair...expansion -- rather than repair -- and changed the function of Msh2-Msh3 from friend of DNA to foe by allowing damaged DNA to go unrepaired. Without DNA repair,...A new analysis of a standard brain test may help predict dementia
...RI and PET to distinguish characteristics of brain function and anatomy that indicate future problems, providi...c and other tests, which revealed that their brain function was normal for their age. At the beginning of the testing process each volunteer was also give...Study proves genetic variations influence cystic fibrosis' severity
...and genetics at Case. "As we better understand its function in lung disease, we hope it will allow us to design better and more specific therapies. Because other researchers have found a similar effect of this gene in asthma, the implications likely extend to other disorders affecting the lungs as well." More...Mechanism controlling DNA damage response has potential novel medical applications
...se this newly recognized mechanism to modulate p53 function in the cell in order to control whether cells in t...g and spreading. Failure of a cell to activate p53 function after DNA damage can contribute to the generation of genetically altered cells that leads to cancer....Shift in brain's language-control site offers rehab hope
...ing as early as age 5 language gradually becomes a function shared by both sides. Between the ages of about 25...edge may give new hope for rehabilitation of brain function in adults after stroke or traumatic brain injuries," said Dr. Szaflarski. "The fact that language ad...Test predicts risk of liver scarring after transplant, study shows
...e new organ severe enough to impair its ability to function normally within five years of transplantation. A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine may have found a way to identify those at greatest risk, thereby allowing doctors to decide who should receive treatme...Scientists pinpoint inflammation gene
... of ChemGenex, said the discovery of SEPS1 and its function could yield new approaches for inhibiting inflamma... conduct laboratory investigations to discover the function of the SEPS1 gene and this particular variant. "These experiments showed that this genetic variatio...Penn study finds direct role for glial cells in brain cross-talk
...e mice, thus directly demonstrating how astrocytes function in the brain. The mice were engineered to produce a protein called SNARE in their astrocytes. When the SNARE protein was produced, the amount of adenosine decreased. When adenosine accumulated, nerve impulses were suppressed and could not be transm...Heart failure patients have impaired cooling response, UT Southwestern researchers find
...to the skin. "If a person doesn't have enough pump function to get the blood flowing, they're going to have difficulty controlling their body temperature," Dr. Levine said. "Heart failure itself is the inability to pump enough blood to meet the demands of the body it usually happens in patients who have had ...AIDS inflicts specific pattern of brain damage, reveals UCLA/Pittsburgh imaging study
... T-cell loss, meaning that people with poor immune function also show severe brain damage," explained Thompson. "This was a revelation. We used to consider these separate phenomena, because HIV harms the brain and immune system in different ways. Now we see they are intrinsically linked." "This is an excit...Old mystery solved, revealing origin of regulatory T cells that 'police' and protect the body
...the discovery of Hassall's corpuscles in 1849, the function of these round blobs of cells in the human thymus ...on and deactivation of other immune cells. A chief function of the thymus is the selection of the T cell repertoire the immune system uses to combat infections ......world. "The project will enable us to look at the function of every gene in the human genome," he said. "It has applications in just about every biological process including cancer, neurological diseases and metabolic diseases." Another significant award to UQ was the $980,250 for Professor Jennifer Stow's...