Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

The Multiple Health Benefits Of Dairy Foods Examined By New Science Review
WHAT: Food prices rose by 5.5 percent in the past year and are expected to increase up to an additional 4 percent in 2009. Americans are seeking to get the most out of their dollar, and since together, dairy foods provide a unique package of nine essential nutrients, they are a nutritional bang for the buck.

Blankets Instead Of Drugs To Avoid The Shivers In Brain Damage
Have you ever covered yourself with a blanket to stave off the shivers? A new study shows that a blanket can also help alleviate shivering in patients who have been cooled to prevent brain damage.
News of the day
Drop In Access To Abortion Would Reward Antiabortion-Rights Violence, Opinion Piece Says
After the murder last month of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, "there is a very real danger" that the availability of abortion later in pregnancy "will end in this country -- not after public deliberation, legislative debate and majority vote, but because antiabortion absolutists on the fringe have intimidated and blacklisted doctors and successfully threatened violence against them," Jim Buie, author of the blog The Buie Knife, writes in a Newsweek.com opinion piece. Buie writes that his parents in the early 1950s chose to institutionalize his three-year-old-brother, who was born with severe Down syndrome, after their attempts to care for him left them with "severe emotional distress" and unable "to meet the needs of their healthy children."Buie continues that he "cannot say that the option of a late-term abortion would have been the right one for my parents." However, "some of the arguments advanced by pro-life forces disturb me," he says, especially a "tendency to romanticize, sentimentalize and idealize life with a cute, forever-young Down-syndrome "angel child."" Buie adds, "It"s an argument I find off-putting, especially when it"s espoused by people who have never been through the wringer trying to care for a child whose disability level is on the most severe end of the scale." He continues, "At the same time, it is very disturbing that until recently, the majority of Down-syndrome fetuses were aborted without expectant mothers receiving proper information or support."Because of Tiller"s murder, it is "possible there won"t be any doctors in the country willing to perform" abortion later in pregnancy, "even if prenatal tests indicate severe retardation," according to Buie, who adds that this would mean that "domestic terrorism could win." He concludes, "It would mean that parents like my own would no longer have a choice, and would instead be forced to endure the same harsh realities that were present in the 1950s" (Buie, Newsweek.com, 6/17).
Diagnostics

International Research Team Seeks To Unravel Flatworm Regeneration

Planarian flatworms are only a few millimeters up to a few centimeters in length, live in freshwater and are the object of intense research, because they possess the extraordinary ability to regenerate lost tissue with the help of their stem cells (neoblasts) and even grow an entirely new worm out of minute amputated body parts. Now researchers from the Max DelbrÃøck Center in Berlin, Germany together with researchers in the US and Canada present the first comprehensive catalogue of small RNAs of planaria, elements that regulate gene expression. They also have identified small RNAs which may play a role in regeneration and stem cell function, Nikolaus Rajewsky from the MDC points out (PNAS, Early Edition)*. Research suggests that the regeneration of the flatworm involves hundreds of genes. But how are these genes regulated? With the latest technologies researchers search for molecules which regulate genes, such as the small RNAs and especially microRNAs (miRNAs). Of the hundreds of known planarian species the team of researchers from Germany, the US and Canada chose Schmidtea mediterranea. Full 30 percent of the cells of this species consists of stem cells, making it a unique model system to investigate the function of stem cells. Many planaria genes resemble those of humans, and also many genes specifically linked to planarian stem cell biology and regeneration are conserved in humans. Understanding planarian regeneration therefore promises to yield important insights into human regeneration and stem cell biology, the researchers are convinced. The researchers looked for small RNAs in stem cells as well as in the whole planarian organism. They discovered 60 new microRNA genes and could demonstrate that ten microRNAs are specifically linked to stem cell biology and may therefore play a role in regeneration. A few of these microRNAs also exist in humans. Furthermore, the researchers discovered millions of piRNAs. This is a group of just recently discovered small RNA molecules which are important for the stability of the genome. The researchers could demonstrate that piRNAs are highly represented in the planarian stem cells and likely function in a similar way as in mammals. Because stem cells are potentially immortal, they need to strictly control their genome integrity during transmission to future generations, and particulary to protect it against the uncontrolled propagation of mobile genetic elements, transposons. PiRNAs have been shown to selectively silence transposons in the fly and mouse genomes. Due to their analysis the researchers assume that piRNAs have a similar function in the planarian stem cells. Further studies are needed to investigate this. Notes: *High-resolution profiling and discovery of planarian small RNAs Marc R. Friedländera,1, Catherine Adamidia,1, Ting Hanb, Svetlana Lebedevaa, Thomas A. Isenbargerc, Martin Hirstd, Marco Marrad, Chad Nusbaume, William L. Leee, James C. Jenkinf, Alejandro Sánchez Alvaradof, John K. Kimb, and Nikolaus Rajewskya,2 aMax DelbrÃøck Centrum fÃør Molekulare Medizin, Robert-Rössle-Strasse 10, D-13125 Berlin-Buch, Germany; bDepartment of Human Genetics, Life Sciences Institute, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109; cDepartments of Bacteriology and Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin, 1550 Linden Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1521; dGenome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Center, 675 West 10th Avenue, Vancouver, BC, Canada V5Z 1L3; eBroad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, 320 Charles Street, Cambridge, MA 02141; and fDepartment of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, University of Utah School of Medicine, 401 Medical Research Education Building, 20 North 1900 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84132 Barbara Bachtler Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009