The changing medical needs of the growing 65-and-over population in the United States are not being met by current medical education, University of Cincinnati (UC) researchers warn.

What is required, they say, is more standardized geriatric training across all medical specialties. An article in the March 2005 issue of Academic Medicine says older adults are making more visits to nonprimary-care specialists and suggests faculty development and curriculum changes be made to bett

In experiments with mice, a team of scientists from the United States, Sweden and Japan has discovered that having a double dose of one protein is sufficient to change the normal balance of cells within the lining of the colon, thereby doubling the risk that a cancer-causing genetic mutation will trigger a tumor there. Roughly 10 percent of people have this double protein dose as well.

In the Feb. 24 online version of Science, the researchers report that mice engineered to have a d

The spontaneous mutation was discovered in a strain of Fox Chase laboratory mice—a potentially useful new research tool for studying the development of immune response

A team of Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists led by immunologist Dietmar J. Kappes, Ph.D., has identified the genetic mutation that keeps a mouse strain from developing white blood cells, or lymphocytes, called helper T cells. The report by Kappes and his colleagues appears in the Feb. 24 issue of Nature. Kappes’

Early Alzheimer’s disease may be precipitated by a “traffic jam” within neurons that causes swelling and prevents proper transport of proteins and structures in the cells, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers.

In mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and in human brain samples from people with the disease, researchers observed a characteristic breakdown in neurons that appears to prevent the normal movement of critical proteins to the commu

Porthole used in both odor-detecting cells and digestion-aiding cells

A cellular “porthole” known best for its role in the digestive system apparently has a major role in helping the brain sense odors, Johns Hopkins scientists report in the Feb. 17 issue of Neuron. The porthole, which lets chloride into cells, is also critical in digestion, hearing, balance, and fertility. The researchers suggest that digestive system cells and odor-detecting cells use the same chloride porthole,

Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered one reason why infants with low birth weight have a high potential of developing type 2 diabetes later in life. In studies of mice, the researchers found that poor prenatal nutrition impairs the pancreas’s ability to later secrete enough insulin in response to blood glucose.

“The bottom line is that if you don’t have delivery of enough nutrients from the mother to the baby, the baby’s pancreatic cells will be prog

A new Standard Reference Material from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will help clinical genetics labs improve the accuracy of their diagnostic tests for the most common cause of hereditary mental retardation.

“Fragile X Syndrome” is a genetic mutation affecting approximately one in 3,600 males and one in 4,000 to 6,000 females. It has been linked to several physical abnormalities and to intellectual problems ranging from minor learning disabilities to se

Researchers at the University of York are trying to discover why so many heart attack victims in the UK fail to take part in potentially life-saving cardiac rehabilitation.

A rehabilitation regime, principally involving lifestyle change, reduces mortality from coronary heart disease but, each year, only about a third of the UK’s 350,000 cardiac patients take advantage of it. The NHS National Service Framework for coronary heart disease says that, by 2002, 80 per cent of people, wh

Giving up smoking after a heart attack has been clearly associated with improvements in long-term patient survival, but how soon after myocardial infarction does smoking cessation begin to have positive effects? A study published in the current issue of The American Journal of Medicine indicates in-hospital cessation counseling following heart attacks is associated with better short-term survival. Counseling smokers to quit reduced their chances of dying in the first 30 days, 60 days and up to

Scientists have found that the bacterium that causes dysentery uses a ’sword and shield’ approach to cause infection.

According to research published today in Science, the team from Imperial College London and Institut Pasteur, Paris, found that shigella, the bacteria which causes dysentery, is able to invade cells, while stopping any response from the immune system.

They found that shigella was able to infect cells by using a secretion system to inject proteins

Operative delivery and postnatal depression: a cohort study BMJ Online First

Elective caesarean section does not protect women from postnatal depression, according to a study published on bmj.com today. Furthermore, neither emergency caesarean section nor assisted vaginal delivery (use of forceps or vacuum extraction) is associated with an increased risk of postnatal depression.

These findings challenge the theory that women at risk of postnatal depression should be m

Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers demonstrated that a gel applied in the vagina provides protection from both the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and the herpes simplex Virus. The study, presented at the 12th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, is the first to show that a gel can retain anti-viral activity within the human vagina.

The study, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) investigated the efficacy of PRO 2000, a topi

New imaging technologies are enabling doctors to not only diagnose a variety of orthopaedic and musculoskeletal conditions with more accuracy, but also to determine with unprecedented precision whether clinical recovery from bone, joint or tendon damage is actually complete and not simply a “placebo effect.”

Radiologists examining patients with damaged tissue are increasingly using ultrasound and specialized MRI techniques that allow examination with great detail – to provi

Crystal images could yield new strategies for AIDS vaccine and drug development

Structural biologists at Children’s Hospital Boston and Harvard Medical School have shown how a key part of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) changes shape, triggering other changes that allow the AIDS virus to enter and infect cells. Their findings, published in the Feb. 24 issue of the journal Nature, offer clues that will help guide vaccine and treatment approaches.

Researchers

Data may help researchers develop new vaccines and diagnostic tests to distinguish the amoeba’s most deadly strains

The genome sequence of the parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica, a leading cause of severe diarrheal disease in developing countries, includes an unexpectedly complex repertoire of sensory genes as well as a variety of bacterial-like genes that contribute to the organism’s unique biology. The report, which appears in the February 24 issue of Nature, pres

Research on adult stem cells found in the skin hints at a new class of genes, according to a study from investigators at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. These genes – dubbed pangenes – can both govern a stem cell’s fate and put a hold on future differentiation until the time is right. Understanding the molecular control of these genes has implications for therapies that involve tissue regeneration. The researchers found that Pax3, a gene critical in embryonic development of m