Cloned cells organize into muscle, heart and kidney tissue; animals show no rejection
Boston – In a study published in the July issue of Nature Biotechnology, available on the internet June 3, researchers from Children’s Hospital Boston and colleagues demonstrated that laboratory-engineered tissues created from heart, skeletal, and renal cells cloned from cows, then transplanted back into the animals, developed into functional tissues and caused no signs of rejection.
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Ph.D. candidate Lital Alfonta wins Kaye Award
Lital Alfonta, a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has developed a fast, inexpensive test to determine if an AIDS patient has developed resistance to the medication he is taking. Ms. Alfonta was selected to receive the prestigious Kaye Innovation Award for her work, which could vastly improve treatment of AIDS patients.
Ms. Alfonta, who developed the test under the guidance of Prof.
Rising levels of gonorrhoea and syphilis across western Europe since 1995 imply that complacency over HIV prevention efforts may have set in among individuals and some governments, argue researchers in this week’s BMJ.
Angus Nicoll and Francoise Hamers examined national trends in diagnosed HIV infections, gonorrhoea, and infectious syphilis from 1995 to 2000.
They found the numbers of new diagnoses of sexually acquired HIV infections increased by 20% in western Europe. Rates of go
Popular arthritis drugs, known as selective COX 2 inhibitors, may not be superior to traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, conclude researchers in this week’s BMJ.
A study published in September 2000 concluded that the COX 2 inhibitor, celecoxib, was associated with a lower rate of stomach and intestinal ulcers than two older drugs for arthritis. However, only data for the first six months of the study were published. When all the data were considered, the published results appe
Scientists from Imperial College London have discovered that xenon gas could help in protecting damaged nerve cells.
The research, published today in Anesthesiology, shows that xenon, an inert gas, acts as a neuroprotectant, helping to protect damaged nerve cells from dying. Based upon pre-clinical trials, researchers believe it could have human applications, eventually leading to treatments for people suffering from nerve damaging illnesses, such as strokes, and brain and spinal cord injur
Authors of a research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET describe a new technique where the detection of a specific protein in faeces could be a marker for colorectal cancer.
Colorectal cancer is a common disease (causing around 500,000 deaths each year worldwide), and screening methods that are more reliable than colonoscopy and faecal-blood assessment are needed for earlier disease detection. Nicholas Coleman and colleagues from the MRC Cancer Cell Unit, Cambridge, UK, aim to develo
Giving magnesium sulphate injections to pregnant women with pre-eclampsia halves the risk of eclampsia developing and can save their lives. This is the conclusion of a major international clinical trial funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and published in this week’s The Lancet.
The three-year £2.5 million study, the ‘Magpie’* Trial, was conducted in 33 countries spanning the UK and much of the developing world where eclampsia is the most common cause of death for pregnant women. Th
New product approved to prevent bleeding deaths
A razor nick during a much-too-close-shave ten years ago may result in hundreds of thousands of lives saved in the future. Scientist Frank Hursey was working with absorptive materials back in the late 80’s when he cut himself shaving. He picked up a volcanic mineral he’d been studying and decided to try it on his bleeding wound. The product worked so well as a coagulant that Hursey set to work doing further testing.
After three
Giving birth is clearly a high-stress experience. But usually it involves positive stress, which helps the woman cope with the exigencies of delivery and prepares the baby for a life outside the mother’s womb.” These are the words of Siw Alehagen from Linköping University, Sweden, who has written a dissertation about fear, pain, and stress hormones in women giving birth. Among other things, she has performed studies during actual delivery, a method that few researchers have dared to attempt anywhere
On Friday, May 31, Anders Eklund, Department of Radiation Sciences, Medical Technology, Umeå University, Sweden, will defend his dissertation evaluating a new and simpler instrument for measuring the pressure of eye fluids, a key risk factor in glaucoma. Anders Eklund has a master’s in engineering and works at the Unit for Medical Technology and Informatics, Northern Sweden University Hospital. He has further developed and assessed a new type of sensor based on vibration technology. His work has targ
It has often been claimed that psychological stress is an important cause of heart disease, but a study in this week’s BMJ shows that previous research may have been misleading.
Researchers measured self-assessed stress amongst middle-aged Scottish men working in and around Glasgow in the early 1970s. These men were then followed for more than twenty years to see whether or not they developed heart disease. Several different measures of heart disease were used.
Men who thought they
In a joint project with the STW Technology Foundation, medical information technologists from Leiden have developed a virtual robot which meticulously scans the heart muscle using images of the heart. The contours detector reduces the work of specialists and does not affect the patients. The research group will present the results in the middle of May at a congress in Honolulu.
To map the condition of a patient’s heart, physicians have until now used a series of MRI images (magnetic resonanc
Activity Generates New Nerve Cells For Old Mice – Study Supports Link Between Active Life And Lower Risk Of Neurodegenerative Disease
Active older people seem to have a lower risk of certain neurological disorders such as Alzheimer`s disease. A study published May 22 in the on-line edition of the Annals of Neurology, the research publication of the American Neurological Association, demonstrates how this increased activity might protect the brain.
Researchers in Germany and the Unit
Breastfeeding might protect against cot death, suggests research in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The researchers surveyed the parents of 244 babies who had died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and 869 babies still alive and well to find out how they had been fed. The study was conducted between 1992 and 1995. Over 80 per cent of the SIDS baby parents and almost three quarters of the comparison group responded.
During the study period breast feeding among the c
Further cases of Creutzfeldt-Jakob (CJD) disease could arise as a result of human growth hormone treatment, even after low doses, suggests research in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Dutch researchers report on the case of a man who developed CJD 38 years after receiving human derived growth hormone.
A 47 year old man was given only a low dose as part of a diagnostic procedure, rather than being given full treatment, which may explain why the incubation period
Scientists at the University of Ulster have unveiled a monitoring system that can ensure transplant organs arrive in pristine condition for the life-saving surgery.
They have developed tiny sensors which are inserted in the organs, and which monitor if there has been any deterioration in the organs’ condition since being removed from the donor.
The sensors are flexible micro-electrodes based on pioneering nanotechnology, which are implanted in the donor organ.
The electrodes mo
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