Kids growing up in smoggy areas again have been found to suffer the effects of pollution, especially acid vapor, according to findings from the University of Southern California-led Children’s Health Study.

The 10-year-long Children’s Health Study is considered one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies to date of the long-term effects of smog on children. The new findings address the development of lung function in children, showing that lung function growth of kids in p

Women who suffer repeated unexplained miscarriages can be helped to have babies if preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) is carried out on their embryos before they are placed in the womb.

Ms Carmen Rubio told the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology annual conference in Vienna today (Monday 1 July) that her research showed that chromosomal abnormalities (aneuploidies) in the embryos were important causes of unexplained recurrent miscarriages (RM) and implantation failur

Norwegian and Swedish researchers have developed a new type of internal radiation therapy for cancer that has spread to skeletal tissue. Experience from an early patient test is optimistic, according to a report being presented at the 18th International Cancer Congress in Oslo this week.

Many patients with advanced breast, prostate or lung cancer experience metastasis to skeletal tissue. This is often a source of pain and suffering.

Exterior irradiation and medication, including ra

Human neurons grown as cells cloned from a tumor helped restore the function of severely injured spinal cords in rats, University of South Florida researchers say in a study released this week in the Journal of Neurosurgery: Spine.

“Transplants of these specially treated cells were used to patch a short circuit in the spinal cord of rats,” said Samuel Saporta, PhD, associate director of the USF Center for Aging and Brain Repair, professor of anatomy and lead author of the study. “We demonstr

Self-repairing fenders and intelligent implants – shape-memory polymers as materials of the future

With a bang, the fender is dented and has to be replaced. Wouldn`t it be nice if the dent could simply – presto! – disappear? Such “intelligent” materials are already being developed, relate Andreas Lendlein and Steffen Kelch in an overview of the field in Angewandte Chemie.

Shape-memory polymers, that`s the magic words: after an undesired deformation, such as a dent in the fend

Scientists at the University of Virginia Health System have identified another step in the mysterious process of gene regulation — what turns genes on or off, making them cause or suppress disease and other physical developments in humans. As reported in this week’s issue of the scientific journal Nature, a chemical group called ubiquitin has been shown to lie upstream of a switch that seems to control whether a gene is on or off. “Ubiquitin was first discovered on histones long ago, but before thi

A newly developed polymer surface could improve the interface between electronic implants and living tissue, helping to advance a technology that may one day enable the blind to see and the paralyzed to walk. The findings were described today at the 34th Central Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, the world’s largest scientific society. The meeting is being held at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

David C. Martin, Director of the Macromolecular Science and Engin

A research letter in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggests that night-time illumination could help prevent the onset of diabetic retinopathy, a condition which can result in severe visual impairment in people with diabetes.

People with diabetes generally have impaired blood capillary function, which reduces oxygen uptake to body tissue, including the retina. It has been suggested that retinal damage associated with diabetes (diabetic retinopathy) might be initiated by oxygen deprivation t

Tritherapies using antiretroviral drugs have proved their worth in industrialized countries in the fight against Aids. However, in Sub-Saharan Africa, where 70 % of people infected with HIV live, access to such treatments is extremely limited. High cost, complicated procedures, combined with inadequate infrastructures for following up patients or capable of delivering medicines regularly partly explain this situation. Moreover, efficacy of antiretroviral agents might not be the same for some HIV stra

Study finds statistical evidence that animal-assisted therapy reduces loneliness in LTC residents

Animal-assisted therapy can effectively reduce the loneliness of residents in long-term care facilities, according to a study by Marian R. Banks of the VA Medical Center in St. Louis and William A. Banks of St. Louis University School of Medicine, Missouri.

The doctors noted that although animal-assisted therapy (AAT) is claimed to have a variety of benefits, until now almost al

Weizmann Institute scientists have uncovered a key mechanism that enables stem cells to exit the bone marrow into the blood circulation of healthy donors, as well as patients suffering from leukemia, other malignancies and blood disorders. Published in the current July issue of Nature Immunology, the findings may lead to more efficient clinical stem cell transplantations.

Bone marrow transplantation is a last-resort treatment that saves the lives of many patients with cancer and inherited b

Findings important in developing new drugs to treat inflammatory vascular diseases

An enzyme that stimulates the production of chlorine bleach in cells to kill bacteria and other invading pathogens also turns off a signal that regulates blood vessel dilation during inflammation, researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine and Medical Center have found.

The research — conducted in collaboration with scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, UCLA and the Unive

Further study may help make biomedical devices safer and explain urinary tract infections

Researchers at the University of Washington have learned that something most people take for granted is not true: that the force of fluids within the human body helps to break the adhesive bonds of invasive bacteria and counterbalance infection.

Most scientists as well as lay people assume, for example, that a sneeze helps clear infection, or that urine helps to clear bacteria from the

Almost half of the first top 10 websites displayed by leading search engines on vaccination are emotive “anti” sites, finds a study in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. Many masquerade as official scientific sites, making it easier for users to be misinformed, say the authors.

The researchers keyed in the terms “vaccination” and “immunis(z)ation” into seven leading search engines: Google; Netscape; Altavista; GoTo; HotBot; Lycos; and Yahoo. They then used just the term “vaccination,” for

High levels of personal hygiene increase the risk of eczema and asthma, shows a study of almost 11000 infants in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The research focused on participants in a long-term study of parents and children (Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children). Parents were surveyed about their children’s wheezy and eczema symptoms up to the age of 6 months, and then between 30 and 42 months.

A simple hygiene score was derived on the frequency of hand-washing

A study at Ohio State University is probing the nature of a unique sulfur-containing molecule — one that scientists consider a “missing link” in its chemical family.

The molecule, hydrogen thioperoxide, or HSOH for short, is related to the common bleaching and disinfectant agent hydrogen peroxide. Because HSOH contains sulfur, it could eventually help scientists understand how pollutants form in Earth’s atmosphere, and how similar molecules form in outer space.

Scientists