Men who experience signs and symptoms of a prostate obstruction resulting from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) are three times more likely than other men to develop chronic kidney disease, according to findings of a Mayo Clinic study published in this month’s edition of Kidney International.

“This is the first study on the topic to sample the general community,” says Andrew Rule, M.D., the Mayo Clinic kidney specialist who conducted the study with epidemiologist Steve

Findings may lead to new methods to control beetles, which have decimated Lake Tahoe and Western forests

University of Nevada, Reno scientists have ended a decade-long controversy over the process by which bark beetles make pheromones: they manufacture their own monoterpenes – the fragrant substances plants produce and which are often used in perfumes. It had been thought that insects and other animals were incapable of making these substances.
“The goal of our research is ult

A new method for manipulating macromolecules has been developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The technique uses double-stranded DNA to direct the behavior of other molecules. In previous DNA nanotechnology efforts, duplex DNA has been used as a static lattice to construct geometrical objects in three dimensions. Instead of manipulating DNA alone into such shapes, the researchers are using DNA to control the folding and resulting structure of RNA. Eventually,

Size doesn’t matter, at least not the size of the eyespots on a male butterfly’s wings when female butterflies consider potential mates.

Instead, females are attracted to the “sparkle” created by the ultraviolet reflectivity of the pupils, the white circles at the center of eyespots, according to new research from University at Buffalo biologists.

The research, to be published online June 29 in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, overturns

Research shows that short-term hormone replacement therapy (HRT) is appropriate for peri- and postmenopausal women. These and other results from the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), the largest, most statistically valid and well analyzed research evaluating the use of HRT, are reviewed in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer.

In peri- and postmenopausal women who have moderate to severe vasomotor symptoms associated with estrogen deficiency, data shows that HRT can be benef

Patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) are at increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD) compared with individuals who suffer from CAD but not RA. The findings of research published today in Arthritis Research & Therapy show that CAD is accelerated in RA patients, and patients with both RA and CAD are at an increased risk of death from heart disease. The authors of the study suggest that the high numbers of inflammatory T cells found in RA arthritis patients may cause the increased risk of

Historical precedents show aid programs could backfire unless local rationing plans are made

Johns Hopkins infectious disease specialists who have spent more than two decades leading efforts to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide are warning that limited international relief supplies of antiretroviral therapies currently being distributed in Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will not get to those who can least afford to pay for them.

In an article appearing in the American Jou

Expectant mothers at risk of premature birth may want to consider drinking pomegranate juice to help their babies resist brain injuries from low oxygen and reduced blood flow, a new mouse study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis suggests.

In humans, decreased blood flow and oxygen to the infant brain is linked to premature birth and other irregularities during pregnancy, birth and early development. The phenomenon, which is called hypoxia ischemia, causes

Research being published in July issue of Diabetes zeros in on who is potentially more susceptible to developing the disease

A University of Alberta team of researchers has discovered an additional 2 million Canadians who have a high fat diet or are overweight may be at increased risk for developing type 2 diabetes if they carry a particular type of common specific genetic trait known as a polymorphism.

In work published today in the journal, Diabetes, pharmacology profe

Visceral leishmaniasis, which is the most severe form of the leishmaniases, hits an annual total of 500 000 people, mostly in the developing countries. It is caused by the parasite Leishmania infantum. A flagellate protozoan, it uses as vector an insect resembling a midge, the sand fly, colonizing the intestine and then the salivary glands. The female insect feeds on mammals’ blood. It can thus pass the parasite on to humans by a single bite. Once in the blood stream, L. infantum passes into parti

In a study expected to greatly benefit crop plants, scientists have deciphered the genome of a root- and seed-dwelling bacterium that protects plants from diseases.

The research provides clues to better explain how the helpful microbe, Pseudomonas fluorescens Pf-5, naturally safeguards roots and seeds from infection by harmful microbes that cause plant diseases. The genome paper will be published in Nature Biotechnology and was scheduled to be posted online on June 26.

Using technology that makes it possible to zoom in on smaller sections of cell chromosomes than ever before, researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have identified nearly 100 chromosome regions where genes are either over-copied or missing in non-small cell lung cancer. The findings provide new clues about the location of genes potentially involved in the most common type of lung cancer –– and one of the deadliest of all malignancies –– and a range of possible targets for future therapies.

The Patagonian Hippidion horse genus and North American stilt-legged horses have found a new place on the evolutionary tree, according to a new article in the open access journal PLoS Biology. In the paper, Jaco Weinstock, Alan Cooper, and colleagues use ancient DNA to argue that the Hippidion genus is younger than previously thought and that American stilt-legged horses were American endemics, not Asian emigres. Their analysis has also whittled down the taxonomy of North American species to just

Intergenerational transmission of infant abuse is more likely caused by early experience than genetic inheritance, new University of Chicago research on macaque monkeys shows.

“Maternal abuse of offspring in macaque monkeys shares some similarities with child maltreatment in humans, including its transmission across generations,” said Dario Maestripieri, Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development at the University of Chicago.

“The mechanis

Results may be relevant to drug development

The cellular cascade of molecular signals that instructs cells with fatally damaged DNA to self-destruct pivots on the p53 tumor suppressor gene. If p53 is inactivated, as it is in over half of all human cancers, checks and balances on cell growth fail to operate, and body cells start to accumulate mutations, which ultimately may lead to cancer. Not surprisingly, the regulation of this vital safeguard has been studied in great detail f

A University of Manchester scientist has been awarded £150,000 to study slime!

But this is no ordinary slime, says biologist Chris Thompson, who believes it could unravel mysteries of evolution that even Darwin couldn’t solve.

Dr Thompson’s curious research was one of only three scientific studies to win this year’s prestigious Lister Institute Research Prize.

The award will allow him to develop his work on slime moulds – microscopic organisms that show remarkabl