Advance could solve major challenge in tissue engineering

Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have successfully induced the growth of new networks of functional blood vessels in mice. In the March 11 issue of Nature, the team from the Steele Laboratory in the MGH Department of Radiation Therapy describes how their technique led to the growth of long-lasting blood vessels without the need for genetic manipulation. The accomplishment may help solve one of the primary c

Protein offers possibility of finding new cancer therapies

Researchers at New York University School of Medicine have found that a protein called APC plays a role in controlling a web of molecular interactions that can transform normal cells into cancerous ones. The finding may provide new possibilities for devising cancer therapies that target this protein.

“A tumor cell lacks the ability to limit its own growth,” says Michele Pagano, M.D., Associate Professor of Pathology,

Contrary to long-held scientific views that the number of oocytes (eggs) in the ovaries of most mammals is fixed at birth, scientists report that new oocyte-containing follicles continue to develop in the ovaries of adult mice. The research suggests that these new oocytes come from stem cells located in the ovary. The study, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), one of the National Institutes of Health, was conducted by Jonathan L. Tilly, Ph.D., and colleagues at Massachusetts General H

People with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) are more than three times as likely to develop blood clots in their veins (venous thromboembolism), finds new research in Gut.

Thromboembolism is a serious and potentially life threatening event. For many years, patients with IBD were thought to be at increased risk, but the evidence has been inconsistent.

Furthermore, it is not known if this risk is specific for IBD or if it is shared by other chronic inflammatory diseases or bowel disor

Findings published in this month’s issue of the Journal of Urology indicate that prostate cancer could be detected as many as five years earlier than it is currently being diagnosed by testing for a protein in tissue that indicates the presence of early disease. The researchers suggest that testing for the protein, EPCA, could serve as an adjunct to the current diagnostic approach to patients with elevated levels of prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, who undergo repeat needle biopsies. PSA, a su

A mild, experimental smallpox vaccine known as modified vaccinia Ankara (MVA) is nearly as effective as the standard smallpox vaccine in protecting monkeys against monkeypox, a study by researchers of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), one of the National Institutes of Health, has found. Monkeypox is used to test the effectiveness of a smallpox vaccine because of its similarity to the smallpox virus. The study appears in the March 11 issue of Nature.

“These f

Scientists have identified a gene in mice that is necessary for normal brain development and may contribute to the most common form of primary brain tumors in children.

Dr. Valeri Vasioukhin and colleagues at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center have discovered that a gene known as “lethal giant larvae 1” (a.k.a. Lgl1) plays a critical role in shaping cell behavior during embryonic brain development. Lgl1 was initially identified in the fruit fly Drosophila, where it regulates cell po

Scientists at the Montreal Neurological Institute and the Montreal Proteomics Network at McGill University have published the most complete picture to date of the components of the molecular machinery that controls the entry of nutrients and other molecules into cells. In a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA (PNAS), Dr. Peter McPherson and colleagues used proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins, to identify the protein complement of clathrin-coat

Dieters’ fatigue similar to chemotherapy side effects

In its current issue, the Mayo Clinic Proceedings has published a letter explaining that the reason low-carb dieters often lose weight and sometimes show improvements in their cholesterol, blood sugars, and blood pressures is because they are, in essence, sickened by the diet. John McDougall, M.D., an advisory board member of Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), explains in his letter that low-carb diets can throw

Researchers have found an association between drinking coffee and a reduced risk for type 2 diabetes in Finnish adults, according to a study in the March 10 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Only a few studies of coffee consumption and diabetes mellitus (DM) have been reported, even though coffee is the most consumed beverage in the world, according to background information in the article.

Jaakko Tuomilehto, M.D., Ph.D., of the National Public Health

Duke University Medical Center researchers have uncovered a strong relationship between the severity of heart disease and the level of endothelial progenitor cells circulating in the bloodstream. This relationship, if confirmed by ongoing studies, could represent an important new diagnostic and therapeutic target for the treatment of coronary artery disease, they said.

These endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) are produced in the bone marrow, and one of their roles is to repair damage to the

The new technique provide support for cartilage cells as they regenerate new cartilage tissue

Duke biomedical engineers have developed a technique to use a natural polymer to fill in and protect cartilage wounds within joints, and to provide supportive scaffolding for new cartilage growth. Their advance offers a potential solution for a central problem in generating new cartilage: providing a support for cartilage cells as they regenerate cartilage tissue.

In tests on rabbit

Common scientific wisdom is that inherited disease results when a mutated protein communicates a defective message in the cell. That does not explain how similar mutations in proteins result in different severities of diseases.

The answer may be found in the messenger RNA (ribonucleic acid), said Dr. James Lupski, professor of molecular and human genetics and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and colleagues in a report that appears online in Nature Genetics on March 8, 2004.

OHSU researchers show brain anatomy, hormone production may be cause

Researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine have confirmed that a male sheep’s preference for same-sex partners has biological underpinnings.

A study published in the February issue of the journal Endocrinology demonstrates that not only are certain groups of cells different between genders in a part of the sheep brain controlling sexual behavior, but brain anatomy and horm

Ears do more than hear; they also control balance and our perception of gravity and motion. An international team of scientists including David E. Bergstrom and John C. Schimenti, at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor; and Rainer Paffenholz and Gabriele Stumm at Ingenium Pharmaceuticals AG in Martinsried, Germany, identified for the first time a protein whose enzymatic function is indispensable for development of this balance system.

The scientists had known that mice with the head tilt m

Viruses could become the next generation of environmentally friendly decontaminants, replacing harmful chemicals like chlorine dioxide in cleaning up areas exposed to anthrax spores, according to findings released today at the American Society for Microbiology’s Biodefense Research Meeting. Researchers from the Biological Defense Research Directorate in Rockville, Maryland, the Defense Science Technology Laboratory in the United Kingdom, and the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute pre