Health & Medicine : Science World Report

Mar 02, 2012 09:04 AM EST

Cardiologists Identify Mechanism that Makes Heart Disease Worse in Diabetics

UT Southwestern Medical Center cardiologists have uncovered how a specific protein's previously unsuspected role contributes to the deterioration of heart muscle in patients with diabetes. Investigators in the mouse study also have found a way to reverse the damage caused by this protein.

Mar 02, 2012 08:38 AM EST

Planarian Genes that Control Stem Cell Biology Identified

Devising a novel method to identify potential genetic regulators in planarian stem cells, Whitehead Institute scientists have determined which of those genes affect the two main functions of stem cells. Three of the genes are particularly intriguing because they code for proteins similar to those kn...

Mar 02, 2012 08:12 AM EST

UC Davis Research Shows How the Body Senses a Range of hot Temperatures

The winter sun feels welcome, but not so a summer sunburn. Research over the past 20 years has shown that proteins on the surface of nerve cells enable the body to sense several different temperatures. Now scientists have discovered how just a few of these proteins, called ion channels, distinguish ...

Mar 02, 2012 07:16 AM EST

Diabetes Research Institute Develops Oxygen-generating Biomaterial

Scientists at the Diabetes Research Institute have developed a revolutionary technique to provide critical oxygen for maintaining the survival of insulin-producing cells. This is the first time that scientists have been able to successfully deliver oxygen locally to beta cells using a biomaterial. T...

Mar 02, 2012 07:06 AM EST

First Study of Its Kind Finds No Increased Risk of Heart Disease for Kidney Donors

There is good news for the 27,000 plus people around the world who donate a kidney each year. A study which followed living kidney donors for 10 years found that they were at no greater risk for heart disease than the healthy general population.

Mar 01, 2012 04:41 PM EST

Vitamin D Shrinks Fibroid Tumors in Rats

Treatment with vitamin D reduced the size of uterine fibroids in laboratory rats predisposed to developing the benign tumors, reported researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. Uterine fibroids are the most common noncancerous tumors in women of childbearing age. Fibroids grow with...

Mar 01, 2012 03:55 PM EST

Solving Mystery of How Sulfa Drugs Kill Bacteria Yields 21st Century Drug Development Target

More than 70 years after the first sulfa drugs helped to revolutionize medical care and save millions of lives, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have determined at an atomic level the mechanism these medications use to kill bacteria. The discovery provides the basis for a new generat...

Mar 01, 2012 03:02 PM EST

Researchers Find Sarcoma Tumor Immune Response with Combination Therapy

A team of 18 researchers at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, Fla., have found that treating high-risk, soft tissue sarcoma patients with a combination of implanted dendritic cells (immune system cells) and fractionated external beam radiation (EBRT) provided more than 50 percent of their trial patien...

Mar 01, 2012 02:53 PM EST

Molecule's Role in Cancer Suggests New Combination Therapy

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine have found that a molecule found at elevated levels in cancer cells seems to protect them from the "cell-suicide" that is usually triggered by chemotherapy or radiation.

Mar 01, 2012 01:05 PM EST

Investigators Predict, Confirm how E. coli Bacteria Hijack Cells' Directional Mechanism

Working in the emerging field of systems biology, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers mathematically predicted how bacteria that cause food poisoning hijack a cell's sense of direction and then confirmed those predictions in living cells.

Mar 01, 2012 12:13 PM EST

Mayo Clinic: Robotic Surgery Proves Successful, Less Invasive Way to Treat HPV-related Oral Cancer

Over the past few decades, doctors have noted a surprising trend in cancer of the tonsils and base of the tongue. Though oral cancer previously appeared predominantly in elderly patients with a history of tobacco and alcohol use, it's increasing in younger patients: 30- to 50-year-old nonsmokers wit...

Mar 01, 2012 11:23 AM EST

New Method for Stronger Dental Implants

Millions of people have bad teeth replaced with implants. Often following the procedure, they are unable to chew food for up to six months, until the implant has become fixated in the bone. Now, for the first time, a drug coating that has been tested on humans allows titanium screws to adhere to the...