After successfully turning cells taken from human fat into different cell types, Duke University Medical Center researchers have now demonstrated that these specific cells are truly adult stem cells with multiple potential, instead of being a mixture of different types of cells, each with a more limited destiny.

During the past three years, the Duke researchers exposed cells taken from human liposuction procedures to different cocktails of nutrients and vitamins, and “reprogrammed” them to

Accident victims who suffer a severe head injury are more likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder if they remain conscious during their ordeal, according to research published in BMC Psychiatry this week. Unconsciousness probably protects people from posttraumatic stress disorder by preventing them from forming memories of their experience.

Current thinking holds that traumatic brain injury alone may be sufficient to protect patients from developing posttraumatic stress disorder, yet

Newborns whose mothers drank alcohol heavily during pregnancy had damage to the nerves in the arms and legs, according to a study by researchers at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, one of the National Institutes of Health. The study was conducted in collaboration with researchers at the University of Chile. The nerve damage was still present when the children were reexamined at one year of age. The study is the first to examine whether exposure to alcoho

Scientists have been studying cannabinoids, substances that are chemically related to the ingredients found in marijuana, for more than two decades, hoping to learn more about how the drug produces its effects–both therapeutic and harmful. Marijuana has been reported effective in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, glaucoma, nausea caused by chemotherapy and wasting caused by AIDS. However, like all drugs, it also causes numerous unwanted side effects, including hypothermia, sedation, memory impair

A widespread lack of public awareness about stroke prevents the delivery of leading-edge therapies and hampers the efforts of researchers to test the next generation of clot-busting drugs, said Dr. Hal Unwin, associate professor of neurology at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Last year at Parkland Memorial Hospital – the primary adult teaching hospital for UT Southwestern faculty physicians – only 19 percent of 349 patients diagnosed with the most common form of stroke arrived wi

Staying physically or mentally active can slow down chemical changes in the brain that lead to the neurodegeneration of Huntington’s disease, researchers show in a mouse model of the disorder.

Levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) stop declining when Huntington’s disease transgenic mice are housed in an enriched environment, the scientists say. BDNF promotes neuron growth and survival and can also regulate communication between neurons.

“The finding that environmental

Infusing a naturally occurring anti-scarring agent called decorin into the damaged spinal cords of rats suppresses key molecules that block nerve regeneration after spinal cord injury, said Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) researchers in a study published today in the European Journal of Neuroscience.

The researchers are the first to use decorin to suppress inflammation and scar formation in spinal cord injuries. “Scar tissue that develops at sites of injury stops the regeneration of connect

A common virus may play a major role in causing a painful disease of immune cells that attacks children’s bones, according to a new study. The research may eventually lead to an easier diagnosis and to more effective treatments of the disease, Langerhans cell histiocytosis.

Researchers found evidence of the virus, human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) in the tissues of 25 of 35 children with Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), compared to virus detected in only five of 19 children without LCH.

The use of an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) can provide a significant reduction in mortality in heart failure patients, according to a study coordinated by researchers from the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

“Treatment using conventional therapy plus an implantable cardiac defibrillator showed a statistically significant reduction in total mortality when compared to standard treatment with a placebo and standard treatment with amiodarone, an anti-arrhythmia drug,” said Kerry L.

Method is First to Show Three Genes at Once in Higher Animals

Using chicken embryos and colorful fluorescent dyes, University of Utah scientists have demonstrated for the first time in a higher animal that it is possible to simultaneously show three genes working within an embryo, body tissue or even a single cell.

“This method allows us to visualize how embryos develop in more detail and with greater clarity than ever before,” says physician Teri Jo Mauch, a pediatric kidney

In work that may lead to better understanding of genetic diseases, researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard show that baker’s yeast was created hundreds of millions of years ago when its ancestor temporarily became a kind of super-organism with twice the usual number of chromosomes and an increased potential to evolve.

The study is by postdoctoral fellow and lead author Manolis Kellis of the Broad (rhymes with “code”) Institute; Eric S. Lander, Broad director; and Bruce W.

Cutting corn down to size

A team of scientists that includes a Washington University in St. Louis biologist, has evaluated and validated a gene-enrichment strategy for genome sequencing and has reported a major advance in sequencing large genomes. The team showed a six-fold reduction of the effective size of the Zea mays (maize or corn) genome while creating a four-fold increase in the gene identification rate when compared to standard whole-genome sequencing methods.

A team

An environmental engineer at Washington University in St. Louis with his doctoral student has patented a device for trapping and deactivating microbial particles. The work is promising in the war on terrorism for deactivating airborne bioagents and bioweapons such as the smallpox virus, anthrax and ricin, and also in routine indoor air ventilation applications such as in buildings and aircraft cabins.

Pratim Biswas, Ph.D.,Stifel & Quinette Jens Professor of Environmental Engineering Scienc

C-reactive proteins, which are released into the bloodstream as a result of inflammation, may not be an accurate early predictive marker for chronic diseases such as osteoarthritis, according to a new study by Duke University Medical Center researchers. The finding calls into question the clinical usefulness of the proteins as an indicator of disease.

Instead, the researchers found, levels of C-reactive proteins circulating in the blood are more an indicator of a patient’s weight that

American Heart Association meeting report

It takes about ten years for high blood pressure in young people to develop after they become overweight, and obesity is on a steady upward climb in the young, according to researchers presenting today at the American Heart Association’s 44th Annual Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention.

Obesity is one of the strongest predictors of hypertension in young adults.

The U.S. Centers for Disease C

Ghent researchers have developed a new and easy method of detecting cirrhosis of the liver. This major finding helps predict the evolution of chronic liver disease, allowing physicians to start proper treatment early on. Patients suffering from this serious, progressive disease in its cirrhosis stage have a high chance of developing liver cancer. The test developed in Ghent permits frequent, non-invasive analyses to be carried out, through which the critical stages of the disease can be closely monit