In women, the risk of coronary heart disease increases significantly after menopause. Estrogen therapy, however, reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease in healthy postmenopausal women. Estrogen enhances endothelial function of the coronary arteries, and this may contribute to the cardioprotective effects of the female hormone.
The precise mechanisms that mediate the beneficial effects of estrogen on arterial endothelial function are incompletely understood. What is known is that the long
Researchers have developed powerful new techniques to see in unprecedented detail how blood-forming cells develop in zebrafish. The scientists have used this system to transplant blood cells with fluorescent “tags” so they can observe how the cells restore the blood system in mutant zebrafish that do not have any red blood cells.
The techniques may be helpful in learning how bone marrow transplants reconstitute the immune systems of patients whose immune cells have been destroyed by chemothe
Super squirrel moms provide silver spoon beginnings
If they could, many women would likely take a page out of the red squirrel’s book. The northern animal can not only decide when its babies are born in the season but how many brothers and sisters will be in a litter, according to new research by University of Alberta scientists.
But not all female squirrels have these “super mom” capabilities whose genes are wired with these traits–there are “dud moms” in the population as
Unique Five-Week VLT Study of the Polarisation of a Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow
“Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs)” are certainly amongst the most dramatic events known in astrophysics. These short flashes of energetic gamma-rays, first detected in the late 1960’s by military satellites, last from less than one second to several minutes.
GRBs have been found to be situated at extremely large (“cosmological”) distances. The energy released in a few seconds during such an event is lar
Malaria is a major scourge on health in many parts of the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where over 90% of declared cases have been recorded. Mosquito nets impregnated with insecticides are considered as a good prevention and control weapon against the mosquito vectors, in particular in areas where malaria is strongly endemic.
The only insecticides currently recommended by WHO (1) are pyrethroids whose rapid action causes a “knock-down (KD)” (2) effect and high mortality when mos
American Heart Association meeting report
Heart valves engineered from patients’ own tissue may offer a new treatment for valvular heart disease, researchers reported today at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2003.
“Using this tissue-engineered valve overcomes many of the problems with mechanical or donor valves because it is a living structure from the patient’s own tissue, and so it does not cause an immunological reaction,” said Pascal M.
Are rainforests as ’natural’ as they appear? How best to replant large forest areas destroyed by fire? A new consultancy service providing the data needed to answer these and other questions has been established at the University of Oxford.
BioGeoSciences for Conservation’ (BGSC) has been set up to help managers having to make those decisions by providing information about how environments have evolved over long timescales. The consultancy service is backed by a specialist la
What is the next best thing to humans landing on Mars and exploring the wonders of the Red Planet? The answer: touching, imaging and analysing carefully preserved samples of Martian rock in a state-of-the-art laboratory on Earth.
If all goes according to plan, this is exactly what ESA’s long-term Aurora programme of Solar System exploration will achieve a decade from now, when the first samples of Mars material will be sealed in a special capsule and returned to Earth for analysis.
The
American Heart Association meeting report
A drug that stimulates bone marrow to produce stem cells helped regenerate damaged heart muscle in one of the first studies of its kind, according to a report presented at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2003.
The drug, granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF), treats some forms of cancer. It stimulates bone marrow to produce the different types of blood cells, including white blood cells that can become
The enzyme that can help turn a one-time experience into a long-term memory has been identified in mice, researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center reported today at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans. Ashok Hegde, Ph.D., of Wake Forest described the researchers’ work and proposed a theory for how lasting memories are formed, a process that involves the enzyme known as protein kinase C.
“One of the hallmarks of memories that last very lo
A nicotine metabolite shows promise for improving memory and protecting brain cells from diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s without addiction and other side effects of nicotine, says a Medical College of Georgia researcher.
Laboratory studies also indicate the metabolite cotinine may be a safe treatment for the debilitating psychotic behavior of schizophrenics, Dr. Jerry J. Buccafusco, pharmacologist and director of the MCG Alzheimer’s Research Center, says in an abstract present
Researchers at UH College of Pharmacy find neurological benefits in nicotine
Cigarettes might just hold the key to treating some serious neurological problems. Scientists at the University of Houston have unlocked one of the first doors, discovering that nicotine repairs damaged brain function. Karim Alkadhi, associate professor of pharmacology, and his team of researchers at the UH College of Pharmacy recently have established that nicotine has a beneficial effect and, in many cases,
Scanning all of Shakespeare in 1/60th of a second
A computer scientist at Washington University in St. Louis has developed technology to stop malicious software – malware – such as viruses and worms long before it even has a chance to reach computers in the home and office.
John Lockwood, Ph.D., an assistant professor of computer science at Washington University, and the graduate students that work in his research laboratory have developed a hardware platform called the Fiel
It’s no secret that radiation is a great danger to astronauts. Most of the research to date concerns the effects of galactic cosmic rays, but what happens to those particles when they pass into a spacecraft?
A device currently being tested will reveal what kind of neutron energy spectrum astronauts are exposed to from neutrons inside a spacecraft, alerting the occupants when dangerous levels occur.
“When spacecraft travel through a variety of primary high-energy cosmic rays, large
Columbia economist offers new way to compute prizes for agriculture research
After many decades of economic growth, the single most important cause of human mortality remains malnutrition. The World Health Organization estimates that food deficits cause about 6 million deaths per year, or 14 percent of the total. Surprisingly, most people who die from hunger are actually farmers – not by choice, but by necessity. They are born in rural areas, and have no other resources with which to
Advances in neurosurgery have opened the operating room door for an amazing array of highly invasive forms of brain surgery, but doctors and patients still face an incredibly important decision – whether to operate when life-saving surgery could irrevocably damage a patient’s ability to speak, read or even comprehend a simple conversation.
Now, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis are developing a painless, non-invasive imaging technique that surgeons here already are usin
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