Avoiding stressful life events and learning effective coping skills may help avert flare-ups of multiple sclerosis (MS) in women with the disease, new findings suggest.

Researchers recruited 23 women with MS from the Multiple Sclerosis Clinic at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and followed them for a year. Each week, the women completed questionnaires asking about MS symptoms and life events, such as starting a new job, finding out that a child is doing poorly in school, having

Environmental enrichment that stimulates brain activity can reverse the long-term learning deficits caused by lead poisoning, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. It has long been known that lead poisoning in children affects their cognitive and behavioral development. Despite significant efforts to reduce lead contamination in homes, childhood lead poisoning remains a major public health problem with an estimated 34 million housing uni

Researchers funded by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences have determined the structure of a protein with a surprising feature in it: a knot. This is the first time a knot has been found in a protein from the most ancient type of single-celled organism, an archaebacterium, and one of only a few times a knot has been seen in any protein structure.

This very unusual protein shape finding is a result from the NIGMS Protein Structure Initiative, a 10-year effort to determine 10,0

For wearers of prosthetic or false limbs, the comfort and effectiveness of the socket fit is crucial. New ways of measuring and solving socket pressure points – using load analysis techniques from the aircraft industry – have been developed by engineering and computing researchers at the University of the West of England.

A team from UWE’’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences has just been awarded a grant of £52,000 by the charity Remedi to further their res

The Johns Hopkins scientists who first discovered that knocking out a particular muscle gene results in “mighty mice” now report that it also softens the effects of a genetic mutation that causes muscular dystrophy.

The findings, scheduled for the December issue of the Annals of Neurology and currently online, build support for the idea that blocking the activity of that gene, known as myostatin, may one day help treat humans with degenerative muscle diseases.

Working with mice ca

Researchers at the University of Washington have discovered a cellular basis for what many have long suspected: Men, as well as women, have a reproductive clock that ticks down with age.

A recent study revealed that sperm in men older than 35 showed more DNA damage than that of men in the younger age group. In addition, the older men’s bodies appeared less efficient at eliminating the damaged cells, which could pass along problems to offspring.

“When you talk about having

A paper published today (26.11.02) in the December Issue of Journal of Applied Ecology by Cowgill et al describes the results of small-scale field trials that were used to assess the effect of PI-expressing potatoes on non-target soil organisms. The impact of a currently used PCN management option, the nematicide, aldicarb, on soil organisms was also studied.

The transgenic plants had an adverse effect on the fungal component of the soil microbial community, while the nematicide adversely

A new finding of a link between an anxiety disorder and peptic ulcer disease lends support to the view that this gastrointestinal disease and anxiety disorder may share a common link. In recent years, attention has focused on a more biological element with the identification of bacteria as a cause of peptic ulcers.

“The identification of Helicobacter pylori as an infectious cause of peptic ulcer disease has been considered by many to disprove the possibility that there is an important relat

Harvard Medical School researchers have uncovered an ovary gene whose absence from mouse egg cells produced severe pregnancy complications. The gene, Fmn2, which produces the protein formin-2, is similar in mice and humans and offers promise for understanding embryo loss, birth defects, and infertility in women. The study appears in the December Nature Cell Biology.

“As humans we are incredibly bad at producing eggs with the normal number of chromosomes, which is the leading cause of pregnan

A new technique to aid early detection of skin cancer could also help fight serious eye diseases such as those caused by diabetes.

The technique has been developed at the University of Birmingham with funding from the Swindon-based Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. It involves using an innovative form of image analysis to tell the difference between skin cancer and other types of skin damage. This allows the cancer to be identified earlier and treated more quickly,

A woman with an obstructed cervix has been successfully treated for infertility using a technique known as intraperitoneal insemination (IPI). The technique, described in a case report just published in BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth, is less invasive and cheaper than alternative infertility treatments, which involve the harvesting of a woman’s eggs. Scott Sills from the Atlanta Medical Center and Gianpiero Palermo from the Cornell Institute for Reproductive Medicine describe how they wer

In the current crisis of global biodiversity loss, the discovery of new species is a welcome addition. But the recent finding that the mountain brushtail possum, an arboreal marsupial mammal of Australian wet forests, is actually made up of two species also poses new conservation challenges.

The new species is proposed in an article in the latest Australian Journal of Zoology (Volume 50, Issue 4), authored by Earthwatch-supported biologist Dr. David Lindenmayer (Australian National Universit

New test will be cheap, less invasive, and could take only minutes

Scientists from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge have developed a rapid new blood test which may help predict the likelihood of a heart attack.

The research published in Nature Medicine shows how a new science, developed in the Imperial College laboratories, called Metabonomics, can be used to test for coronary artery disease, using minimally invasive procedures.

The test, wh

Patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) rely on mechanical ventilation to breathe, however routine suctioning to remove debris that may be blocking their airways can cause lung tissue to collapse. New research published in Critical Care explains how a new technique involving the re-inflation of lungs after suctioning can lead to a marked improvement in the condition of patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

Acute respiratory distress syndrome is a devastating inf

Using a tiny wireless sensor developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, doctors will know in minutes instead of hours if an organ is getting adequate blood flow after transplant or reconstructive surgery.

Conventional methods for assessing circulation involve invasive procedures or extensive laboratory testing. In some cases, by the time doctors realize there isn’t adequate blood flow to an organ or tissue, irreversible damage already has occurred.

“Our goal is to offer a te

The ophthalmology team of the University Clinic of the University of Navarre has published a new technique to detect diabetic retinopathy. This research has been published in the magazine Investigative Ophthamology and Visual Science. The research is based on the Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT). This test allows measuring the thickness of eye macula without touching the eye and without using contrast injection. The macula is the central part of the retina and is the responsible of the central vis