Baseball fans might want to add a little more sauerkraut to their hot dogs: Researchers have identified compounds in the tangy topping, made from fermented cabbage, that may fight cancer. Their study will appear in the Oct. 23 print issue of the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society.

The researchers found that the process of fermenting cabbage produces isothiocyanates, a class of comp

Studies published in International Journal of Toxicology

In its September/October issue, the International Journal of Toxicology is pleased to publish the last in a series of four studies examining possible reproductive and developmental health effects from two byproducts of drinking water chlorination. These studies fill significant data gaps identified by a Federal Advisory Committee formed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on drinking water regulations.

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Research published in the online journal, BMC Biotechnology reports on a new, large-scale technique for distinguishing between male and female ostrich chicks using DNA extracted from feathers. This new technique will remove the need for invasive procedures currently in use to sex-type ostriches and allow breeders to discover the sex of their chicks much earlier. Details of this new technique can now be read by all interested parties because of the decision of the authors to publish in the open access

The disorder Maedi-Visna that is detected in sheep affects on mammary gland. As it says in the source language, Icelander, it affects lungs and nervous system. The disorder is produced by the lentivirus Maedi-Visna, which belongs to the family of Aids. This virus infects sheep, and until now, there is no evidence of the transmission to humans. This virus, which is known since many years, causes a very slow evolution of the disorder. Therefore, shepherds often do not detect the infection, because shee

Women with low folic acid levels are at a significantly increased risk of having an early, naturally occurring termination of their pregnancy, according to an article in the October 16 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

According to background information in the article, both folate deficiency and folic acid supplements have been reported to increase the risk of spontaneous abortion, which refers to the naturally occurring termination of a pregnancy – end of th

Women seem to be less susceptible than men to stress and serious stress-related illnesses because of the protective properties of the sex hormone oestrogen, according to a recent study of nurses by the University of Greenwich.

The study indicates that oestrogen reduces the production of stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline which, when secreted during long periods of stress, can cause major illnesses such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and osteoporosis.

The urine of 315 ma

A chemical cousin of anti-anxiety medications, such as Valium and Xanax, significantly reduces kidney inflammation in mice inbred to develop a disease resembling human systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of California-Berkeley have found.

Their research, described in the Oct. 16 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, also reveals the novel mechanism by which the compound works, a discovery that could lead to safer and mor

Patterns of proteins found in patients’ blood serum may help distinguish between prostate cancer and benign conditions, scientists from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report today in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute*. The technique, which relies on a simple test using a drop of blood, may be useful in deciding whether to perform a biopsy in men with elevated prostate specific antigen (PSA) levels.

Using a test that can analyze

A new study from Johns Hopkins finds that some patients diagnosed with cystic fibrosis (CF) lack any of the more than 1,000 reported disease-causing mutations in the only known CF gene. Scheduled for presentation Oct. 18 at the annual meeting of the American Society for Human Genetics in Baltimore, the findings also recently appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The discovery may mean that another gene, as yet unidentified, is to blame for these cases, or perhaps these patients r

Deguelin may inhibit growth of Akt, an essential molecule in the promotion of precancer

The use of deguelin, a natural plant extract most commonly used as an insecticide in Africa and South American, inhibits the growth of precancerous and cancerous lung cells, with no toxic effects on normal cells, according to a study presented today at the first annual Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research meeting convened by the American Association for Cancer Research. The role of deguelin as a

In a discovery with implications for treatment of anxiety disorders, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute investigators have identified a distinct molecular process in the brain involved in overcoming fear. The findings will be published in the Oct. 15 edition of the Journal of Neuroscience .

The study of how mice acquire, express and extinguish conditional fear shows for the first time that L-type voltage-gated calcium channels (LVGCCs) — one of hundreds of

A theory that suggests the aging process might be safely slowed by targeting genes that are quiet early but threaten damage later in life has gotten a boost from new findings from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

The researchers don’t promote such tinkering in their paper, which appears online this week in advance of publication by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Rather they detail their tests, based on models of mathematical prediction, of the two l

Foxd3 joins the small, but growing list of stem cell regulating genes

In the search to understand the nature of stem cells, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have identified a regulatory gene that is crucial in maintaining a stem cell’s ability to self-renew. According to their findings, the Foxd3 gene is a required factor for pluripotency – the ability of stem cells to turn into different types of tissue – in the mammalian embryo. Their research is

Researchers have found that immediately treating people who have early stage glaucoma can delay progression of the disease. This finding supports the medical community’s emerging consensus that treatment to lower pressure inside the eye can slow glaucoma damage and subsequent vision loss. These results are reported in the October 2002 issue of Archives of Ophthalmology.

Scientists found that immediate treatment of newly-discovered primary open-angle glaucoma, the most common form of glaucoma

Findings are cover story of Oct. 15 issue of Cancer Research

Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have successfully tested a new treatment for brain cancer by utilizing neural stem cells to track and destroy cancer cells within the brain. Scientists hope the encouraging results may eventually lead to an effective treatment for glioma, the most aggressive form of primary brain tumor in humans. The study, conducted in mice with experime

A newly recommended treatment for latent tuberculosis (TB) infection can cause liver injury, and therefore needs to be used with great caution and frequent monitoring, according to a UCSF-led, multi-center study.

The research reporting the increased liver injury from the drugs, rifampin and pyrazinamide, was conducted by investigators at UCSF, Boston University, and Emory University and appears in the October 15 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine.

The study is the first large