Mayo Clinic researchers have created a method for measuring the growth of new spinal cord nerve fibers in rats, an advance that allows them to quickly determine nerve regeneration rate and what variables in the nerve-growth environment best support it.
The finding is important because it is a first step in laboratory animal models that will help scientists refine and improve nerve repair and regrowth in spinal cord injuries. While much basic science remains to be completed, this path of discove
Researchers from Yale University, University of Pittsburgh and University of Georgia have reported new data on how the fundamental arrangement of water molecules is affected by the presence of protons. The work appears in Sciencexpress.
This research is about the surprising flexibility of water molecules that makes water the medium of choice for biological systems. The study examines the 50-year-old question of how many water molecules share a proton, a crucial issue in the transportation o
Researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center Report
While soy may be beneficial to women in a variety of ways, research in monkeys suggests that it could have an adverse effect on the behavior of men, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center.
Reporting in the current issue of the scientific journal Hormones and Behavior, the researchers found that in male monkeys, “long-term consumption of a diet rich in soy isoflavones ca
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the tens of millions of marine birds living in the “Bird Islands of Peru” became famous around the world. This was due to their appeal as a visual spectacle and because they became economically important as high producers of guano, droppings that the country mined and exported around the world for fertilizer.
A new study published in the current issue of the journal Fisheries Oceanography says the populations of these famous birds have declined dra
Some parents-to-be talk to their unborn child, read stories out loud and play classical music to bond and give the baby a head start on life. This uniquely American pregnancy practice, “belly talk,” is the subject of study by a University of Michigan anthropologist.
“It’s one of the ways expectant parents here start to think of their unborn children as persons who are part of their family,” said Sallie Han, a researcher with the Alfred P. Sloan Center for the Ethnography of Everyday Li
Small ant invaders put plants at peril
Not surprisingly, tiny ants just can’t tote seeds as far as their bigger cousins.
Because seeds are more likely to survive and sprout if they’re farther from the mother plant, it’s best for plants to form seed-moving partnerships with heftier ants.
Now ecologists have shown how much poorer small ants are at moving seeds.
The research suggests that plants that depend on ants for heavy lifting may be in
For several years, scientists have attempted to identify gene expression changes, using microarrays or ’DNA chips’, in order to understand and predict breast cancer onset, progression, and clinical outcome. Although important insights into breast cancer have been drawn from determining the expression ’profiles’ of thousands of genes in tumors, the interpretation of experimental results has been complicated by the absence of knowledge about the gene expression in ’normal’
A new study shows that the risk for prostate cancer is significantly elevated in men who are part of families with a hereditary form of breast and ovarian cancer. Researchers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center have determined that men in families carrying BRCA genetic mutations have a three- to five-fold increased risk of prostate cancer.
“While the association between hereditary breast and prostate cancer has been suspected, this is the first study of its type to confirm the link,”
UMHS study suggests some babies more in tune to mom’s behavior at meals
Mealtime is a nightmare, the baby won’t eat what’s on his highchair, and instead he seems to grab for whatever mom and dad have on their plates. For many parents it’s a familiar and frustrating story.
But while parents may describe their baby as a difficult eater or an overeater, it could be just a sign that the child is more tuned in to the eating habits of those around him.
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A newly developed, magnetic resonance (MR)-compatible incubator allows radiologists to safely and efficiently obtain quality diagnostic images of sick infants, according to a study appearing in the May issue of the journal Radiology.
“MR imaging is the most desirable imaging test for many newborns because there is no exposure to radiation,” said the study’s lead author, Stefan Blüml, Ph.D., associate professor at The Saban Research Institute at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, and the d
Computed tomography (CT)-guided injections offer a safe delivery method for gene therapy in patients with metastatic kidney cancer, according to a study in the May issue of the journal Radiology.
Gene therapy involves introducing genetic material directly into cells to fight disease. “The new gene therapies offer promise for controlling certain types of cancer, but delivering the agents directly into tumors poses its own set of challenges,” said the study’s lead author, Robert D. Suh,
MR spectroscopy may be a useful adjunct to conventional imaging to distinguish recurrent tumor from treatment-related change in the brain such as inflammation or dead cells, says a new study by researchers from the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, MI.
In the study, MR spectroscopy was performed on 27 patients who were previously treated with surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy for brain tumor. Results of the study revealed that Choline, Creatine and N-acetylasparta
Using simultaneous acquisition of spatial harmonics (SMASH) T2-weighted imaging for knee MRI results in a significant decrease in imaging time, as compared to conventional fat-saturated T2-weighted imaging, without any negative effects on MRI interpretation or patient clinical outcome, says a new study by researchers from the Neuroskeletal Imaging Institute in Melbourne, FL.
According to the study, SMASH imaging, which acquires many pictures at the same time as opposed to traditional imaging
The accuracy and intrinsic safety of MRI in diagnosing abdominal and pelvic disease in pregnant women with acute abdominal or pelvic disease make it an excellent choice for the evaluation of these patients, a new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina Hospitals, Chapel Hill, and the University of San Diego Hospitals in California says.
In the study, MRI was used to image pregnant patients with acute abdominal or pelvic pain. Afterwards, each patient’s clinical course was
By using a 16-slice scanner as opposed to a 4-slice scanner, considerable reductions in effective radiation dose can be achieved on body CT without sacrificing established clinical image quality levels, a new study by researchers from Leiden University Medical Center in Leiden, The Netherlands, says.
Specifically, the authors state that by using carefully optimized volumetric imaging protocols with 16-MDCT (multidetector computed tomography), a dose reduction of 20–30% can be achieved in sta
An enzyme that protects the body from reactive chemicals called free radicals is crucial in preventing the inflammation that causes chronic lung disease in premature infants, according to three new studies.
The findings could lead to improved treatments to alleviate such inflammation, preserving the lungs of premature infants, said Richard Auten, M.D., a neonatalogist and associate professor of pediatrics at Duke University Medical Center. Auten and colleagues from the Medical College of W
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