MacroPore Biosurgery, Inc. (Frankfurt: XMP) today announced that adipose tissue-derived regenerative cells improved heart function following myocardial infarction in a large-animal preclinical safety study. This study, performed in swine, confirms previous preclinical work by MacroPore Biosurgery and others suggesting that the Company’s proprietary, patented technology is safe and may be clinically useful in treating heart disease. The goal of the study was to determine the safety of adipose tissue-

Ten years ago, Valter Longo had an inkling of a theory of aging that is now challenging the dogma of one of science’s heavyweights – Charles Darwin.

From graduate school to a career as an assistant professor in the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, Longo’s ideas were questioned by peers and students alike as he explored a new way to look at aging that directly opposes principles set forth by Darwin in his theory of

Stem cell research. Just the mention of the controversial study stirs up a storm of debate.

The divisive research has become a political hot potato, even emerging as a campaign issue. One presidential candidate has declared it an ethical and moral issue that must not be treated lightly; the other has pledged to lift a partial ban on the research. In California, voters will vote on a measure that would devote $3 billion to human embryonic stem cell experiments.

Even a prom

Adding folic acid to food can dramatically reduce the incidence of spina bifida and other birth defects. A study, published today in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, shows that the proportion of babies born with neural tube defects in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador dropped by 78% after the Canadian Government directed that folic acid must be added to flour, cornmeal and pasta. The study supports the continuation of this food fortification strategy.

The way that folic acid work

Patients needing second-time or “re-do” heart surgery have a new safer alternative. New findings show that an “off-pump” surgical procedure is performed safely and has improved outcomes for patients than traditional methods.

Due to a newly standardised approach and enhanced technology, doctors can perform this controversial surgery and eliminate the damaging effects of using a heart bypass machine. Off-pump surgery, also known as the “beating heart” method, is performed while the

Nursing study, co-authored by Case Western Reserve University professor, published in journal Pain

A study aimed at giving health care providers a better understanding of the multidimensional nature and effects of school-age children’s post-operative pain concludes that using imagery with analgesics reduced tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy pain and anxiety following surgery.

Findings of the study, “Imagery reduces children’s post-operative pain,” authored by Myra Ma

Treatment for prostate cancer leads to significant five-year declines in sexual and urinary function, according to a new study. However, general and other specific health-related quality of life factors, such as bowel function, are not affected. These findings come from the first prospective comparative study examining differences between normal aging and the effects of prostate cancer treatment, published in the November 1, 2004 issue of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Societ

Pneumonia—one of the world’s deadliest diseases for young children in developing countries—could be treatable by the oral antibiotic amoxicillin rather than injectable penicillin, with implications for better health outcomes and reduced costs, conclude authors of an international study in this week’s issue of THE LANCET.

Nearly 2 million children under 5 years of age die every year in developing countries from respiratory diseases such as pneumonia. Penicillin given by injection is t

Internationales Symposium “Hepatitis C und verwandte Viren” in Heidelberg / Viel versprechende Wirkstoffe in ersten klinischen Studien / Neues Zellsystem erlaubt Virusvermehrung im Labor

Anlässlich des 11. Internationalen Symposiums “Hepatitis C und verwandte Viren” vom 3. bis 7. Oktober 2004 in der Stadthalle Heidelberg lädt Professor Dr. Ralf Bartenschlager, Ärztlicher Direktor der Abteilung Molekulare Virologie des Universitätsklinikums Heidelberg und hauptverantwortlicher Organ

This week’s lead editorial discusses the benefits and potential risks of allowing genomic information to be freely available on the internet—and supports the recent report by the US National Research Council recommending that such information should remain freely accessible to all.

The editorial comments: ‘But while free and open access to these data is a boon to science, it carries some risk: among the genome sequences freely available on the internet are those for more than 100 pa

Scientists from IVPP, Field Museum and University of Chicago describe a new Chinese reptile from the Triassic and propose a unique feeding method

The well-preserved fossil of a newly discovered reptile species may explain the function of the extremely long neck for which some protorosaurs are known – a feature that has puzzled scientists for decades. The Protorosauria is an order of diverse predatory reptiles that lived as far back as 280 million years ago. Scientists have never been

Neurobiologists have pinpointed the molecular storehouse that supplies the neurotransmitter receptor proteins used for learning-related changes in the brain. They also found hints that the same storage compartments, called recycling endosomes, might be more general transporters for ’memory molecules’ used to remodel the neuron to strengthen its connections with its neighbors.

They said their finding constitutes an important step toward understanding the machinery by whic

Biologists have discovered that the air pollutant nitric oxide acts as a plant hormone to delay flowering in plants. The scientists discovered that while plants produce their own internal nitric oxide to regulate flowering, they are also influenced by external concentrations of the chemical.

The scientists said that although their findings are basic in nature, they suggest that the massive amounts of nitric oxide emitted as air pollutants from burning fossil fuels could affect the c

Mesothelioma is an aggressive cancer of the chest cavity that kills about 2000 people a year in the United States. Seventy to eighty percent of patients with this rare cancer have had exposure to asbestos. It has also been proposed that simian virus 40 (SV40), a contaminant in some polio vaccines administered in the 1950’s and 1960’s, might be a cause. However, studies reporting the detection of SV40 DNA in human tumors (including mesotheliomas, and also some lymphomas, brain cancers, an

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have identified a critical gene for plants that start their lives as seeds buried in soil. They say the burial of seeds was an adaptation that likely helped plants spread from humid, wet climates to drier, hostile environments.

In a study published in the Sept. 24 issue of the journal Science, the researchers describe how a gene called phytochrome-interacting factor 1, or PIF1, affects the production of protochlorophyll, a precu

Few have heard of the degenerative, deadly disease called Ataxia-telangiectasia (A-T) but a University of Alberta researcher is hoping to provide clues to this mysterious disorder.

Dr. Shelagh Campbell, from the U of A’s Department of Biological Sciences, is a basic researcher who studies how normal cell cycles are regulated, by analyzing genes that are responsible for repairing DNA damage that offer insights into human diseases like cancer and A-T. A-T is a progressive, degenera