A tiny capsule containing tissue that secretes a cocktail of brain-nourishing neurotrophic factors may one day help reduce the damage and disability of stroke, according to research published in the September issue of Stroke.

Choroid plexus tissue has innate roles in developing and protecting the brain and when additional tissue is transplanted into an animal model of stroke, it reduces stroke size by about 65 percent, Medical College of Georgia researchers report. “What we have see

Mice with specific genetic mutations exhibit behavior similar to human psychosis, report UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas researchers, providing further support to the notion of a genetic link to schizophrenia.

The researchers genetically engineered mice with a mutation in the gene NPAS3, a mutation in the gene NPAS1 or a mutation in both genes. Both genes encode proteins that switch other genes on and off in brain cells. “These mice display certain deficits that are poten

Restoration of fertility to the now-sterile garlic plant has been accomplished by Israeli researchers, thus opening the way to wide-ranging scientific research that could lead to improved yields and quality.

Garlic is one of the most popular vegetable condiments in the world. Its origins are in Central Asia, where in the past, several fertile or semi-fertile garlic plants were identified. However, the cultivated, commercial plants we know today are totally sterile and are propaga

A well known anti-cancer agent in certain vegetables has just had its reputation enhanced. The compound, in broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables, has been found to be effective in disrupting late stages of cell growth in breast cancer.

Keith Singletary and doctoral student Steven Jackson of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign report their finding involving sulforaphane (SUL), which they say could ultimately be used to enhance the prevention and treatment of breast can

In the human body, hundreds of different types of biomolecular motors help carry out such essential tasks as muscle contraction, moving chromosomes during cell division, and reloading nerve cells so they can repeatedly fire.

How these little proteins perform their duties is becoming clearer to scientists using an extremely sensitive measurement technique. Myosin VI, they found, moves by the same “hand-over-hand” mechanism as two other molecular motors, myosin V and kinesin.

Escaped salmon are a problem for the fish-farming industry. Is it possible to identify the fish-farm from which salmon have escaped by testing a sample of their DNA? Scientists at the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen have been looking into the prospects of doing so.

Escapees are a major problem for fish farming, not only for the farmers who lose their fish, but also for stocks of wild salmon. This is because cultivated salmon have been bred to thrive in an artificial environm

Females have traditionally been viewed as the choosy, monogamous sex compared to males, but recent genetic studies have revealed that females of many, if not most, animal species also mate multiply with different partners. However, understanding why females should do this has remained something of enigma.

Speaking at the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting, Dr William Hughes of the University of Sydney and Professor Jacobus Boomsma of the University of Copenhagen will a

From salting and drying to pickling and irradiating, humans have devised many ingenious ways of preserving their food from spoilage by microbes. The question of what microbes gain from making food go off in the first place has attracted less attention, but research presented at this years British Ecological Society Annual Meeting will shed new light on the problem.

Speaking at the meeting, taking place at Lancaster University on 7-9 September 2004, Dr Dave Wilkinson of Liverpool John

An unprecedented picture of how bacteria latch on to human cells has been published by UK, French and US scientists. They have produced a finely detailed model of one of the tools used by some of the nastiest varieties of the stomach bug, Escherichia coli, to stick to and gain entry to host cells.

Led by senior author Dr Stephen Matthews, Reader in Chemical and Structural Biology at Imperial College London, the research is published in the latest issue of the journal Molecular Cell

Treating heart-attack patients earlier with a more aggressive regimen of cholesterol-lowering medicines may help diminish their chances of sustaining more complications later or dying after their heart attack, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have found.

The findings, published online today by The Journal of the American Medical Association, show benefits of treating patients who have recently suffered acute coronary syndromes with higher doses of the choleste

The study of 1,821 patients from Olmsted County, Minn., who had heart attacks between 1982 and 1998 and survived to go home from the hospital, found that nearly half (48 percent) of the deaths within three years of hospital discharge were attributable to not participating in cardiac rehabilitation.

“On average, for patients who participated in cardiac rehab, it was almost as if the heart attack never had happened. They had the same three-year survival as what would be expected fr

For years researchers have tried to determine why the French have such a lower rate of cardiovascular disease, given the amount of fat consumed in their diets. Red wine has been identified as one of the suspects in maintaining a healthy heart, but now a University of Missouri-Columbia researcher has found that alcohol, in moderation, from any source not only maintains a healthy heart, but can reduce the damage to affected tissue following a heart attack.

When a heart attack occurs

A study carried out by the Heart and Lung Centre at Ullevaal Hospital in Oslo has demonstrated that domesticated salmon fed with fish oil containing a large amount of omega-3 fatty acids is better for cardiac patients than salmon fed with vegetable oil (rapeseed oil).

“Cardiac patients who ate domesticated salmon fed with a large amount of omega-3 fatty acids showed reduced risk for further development of the disease,” says professor Harald Arnesen at Ullevaal Hospital. “These pat

Reptiles can make great pets—they’re quiet and they don’t leave fur on the furniture and floors. However, whether wild-caught or store-bought, reptiles often carry salmonella. These bacteria can cause diarrhea, and young children are at particular risk, according to a study in the September 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

Diet, susceptibility, and the lower amount of bacteria needed to infect a child may all contribute to the likelihood of children les

A significant association was found between hypothyroidism and open-angle glaucoma, according to a study appearing in the September issue of Ophthalmology, the clinical journal of the American Academy of Ophthalmology. The relationship between the two has been disputed in prior studies.

Glaucoma, a leading cause of blindness in the United States, is a condition in which the optic nerve is damaged. It can be associated with elevated pressure inside the eye and can lead to vision loss

Biochemists have pinpointed how a flaw in DNA that is central to mutations in cancer and aging fools the cellular enzyme that copies DNA. Their finding explains how oxidative DNA damage — a process long believed to underlie cancers and aging — can create permanent genetic damage.

The Duke University Medical Center researchers’ findings were published online Aug. 22, 2004, by the journal Nature. The scientists were led by Associate Professor of Biochemistry Lorena Beese, Ph.D., and