Bone marrow transplantation offers the hope of a complete cure for patients suffering from certain forms of cancer, such as leukemia or other immune deficiency diseases.

However, there is a risk that transplanted cells may recognize the recipient patient’s tissues as foreign and begin to attack them. This reaction, known as graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), can be lethal if it continues unchecked.

It has recently been shown in mice that the use of large numbers of immunoregul

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center have developed a new breast scanner that is designed to detect subtle changes in breast cells before a lump can be felt by hand or seen with X-ray mammography.

Such early detection should enable doctors to more successfully treat breast cancer before it has formed a tumor or spread to lymph nodes, said Martin Tornai, Ph.D., associate professor of radiology and biomedical engineering at Duke and developer of the device. The new camera has undergo

When retroviruses like HIV infect cells, they take over the cell’s machinery to manufacture new copies of themselves. Research published this week in the top-tier open access journal, Journal of Biology, shows that to escape from cells, retroviruses may once again hijack cellular components, in this case molecules normally used to engulf material from the cell’s surroundings in a pocket formed from cell membrane. The findings, offer new insights into how viruses propagate and cause disease,

Laser tool makes it possible to study the interior of an endothelial cell in a non-invasive way

Endothelial cells, which line the body’s blood vessels and regulate the exchange of material between the blood stream and surrounding tissue, are one of the most closely studied types of cell in the body.

The cells play an important role in cardiovascular disease. And a greater knowledge of their interior functions may help scientists develop new cancer treatments that curb o

Study provides insight into role of TGF-beta in cancer development, progression

Scientists are puzzled by the fact that the molecule known as transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-b) generally stops cells from multiplying but at other times promotes cell growth.

Dr. Hal Moses, director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, and his lab identified TGF-b in 1985 as both a growth stimulator and growth suppressor. Since that time, its role in colon, breast and other cancers has b

Growth hormone is known to increase lean body mass and bone density in the elderly, but it does something else, too.

It activates a gene critical for the body’s tissues to heal and regenerate, says Robert Costa, professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a member of the UIC Cancer Center.

That discovery could help explain why we age.

“Growth hormone levels decline as we grow older; as a result, the Foxm1b gene st

An unusual experiment with monkeys who were switched between mothers shortly after birth has demonstrated the importance of nature over nurture in behavior.

Young monkeys reared by a mother other than their own are more likely to exhibit the aggressive or friendly behavior of their birth mothers rather than the behavior of their foster mothers, a University of Chicago researcher has shown for the first time.

The discovery of inheritability of social behavior traits among non-human

Medical Research Council (MRC) researchers have unlocked the mysteries of the nervous system responsible for proper formation and function of the gut. This new understanding has implications for treating Hirschsprung’s disease, a common disorder in newborns that requires corrective surgery in order for food to pass through the bowel and the colon.

The study shows that two important molecular switches work together to regulate the movement of crucially important cells, that will eventually b

Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center scientists have identified the cell likely to be responsible for the development of multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow that destroys bone tissue. The research, published in Blood online, suggests that therapies designed for long-term cure of the disease should target this stem cell, which, unlike other cells, can copy itself and differentiate into one or more specialized cell types.

In their studies to learn why multiple myeloma so often recurs

Clinical promise and clues to patient selection seen in initial clinical trial results

A technique already in use to freeze and kill benign breast masses also appears to kill small malignant breast tumors, new research from a clinical trial at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Centers shows.

And while the number of patients studied to date is small, the vast majority — seven of nine — had no residual cancer after their invasive tumors were frozen in a minimal

Certain forms of cancer occur more often in patients with type 1 diabetes compared with the general population in the corresponding sex and age groups. This has been shown in a new Swedish study from Karolinska Institutet.

The study, which has been published this week, is the first large-scale investigation of the risk of cancer among patients with type 1 (youth onset) diabetes. It included nearly 30,000 patients who had been treated at hospitals between 1965 and 1999. Of these, 355 received

Fox Chase Cancer Center researchers and their colleagues in Japan and San Francisco have obtained new insight into the molecular structure of prion particles responsible for mad cow disease and other degenerative neurological disorders. In new research to be published in this week’s Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (www.pnas.org), Fox Chase biophysicist Heinrich Roder, Ph.D., and colleagues describe a computer model of the structural core of prions, bas

According to the classic rules of physics, substances melt at a lower temperature when their sizes decrease. But scientists at Indiana University Bloomington have found that at least one substance, gallium, breaks the rules, remaining stable as a solid at temperatures as much as 400 degrees Fahrenheit above the element’s normal melting point. Their report will be published in an upcoming issue of Physical Review Letters.

The discovery gives hope to some nanotechnologists and “nanocomput

Researchers led by Jason Jaworski, PhD, and Michael Kuhar, PhD, both at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory University, have shown that CART peptide, a chemical that occurs naturally in both the rodent and human brain, reduces some effects of cocaine when additional amounts are administered to the region of the brain that is associated with reward and addiction. These findings, which were presented on November 8 at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans, appear in the De

From within the rich fabric of connecting tissue between cells, researchers of four institutions, led by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, have identified the action of anastellin, a natural agent that is showing promise blocking metastasis of cancer cells and enhancing wound healing.

That anastellin is derived from the cell adhesion protein fibronectin found in the extracellular matrix surrounding cells was known. Researchers at the Burnham Institute in California in Septembe

Hypertensive patients with coronary artery disease had similar outcomes when they took a beta-blocker therapy or a calcium antagonist-based therapy, according to a study in the December 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, despite conclusive evidence of the effectiveness of medications to treat high blood pressure in patients with hypertension in general, safety and efficacy of antihypertensive medications in