Social Sciences

Research led by David Hess of the Robarts Research Institute at The University of Western Ontario has identified how to use selected stem cells from bone marrow to grow new blood vessels to treat diseases such as peripheral artery disease. It's one of the severe complications often faced by people who've had diabetes for a long time. Reduced blood flow (ischemia) in their limbs can lead to resting pain, trouble with wound healing and in severe cases, amputation. The research is published in Blood. Hess drew human bone marrow and simultaneously isolated three different types of stem cells…

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) cause malformations in babies, including facial defects, short stature, and mental and behavioral abnormalities. The African frog, Xenopus, is a valuable tool for understanding early vertebrate development since these embryos are large, easy to work with and very responsive to environmental cues. New research uses this system to address the mechanism underlying the characteristics associated with maternal consumption of alcohol in early pregnancy. Alcohol consumption prevents normal development by inhibiting the…

PHILADELPHIA – Three-day-old broccoli sprouts, a widely available human food, suppressed Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infections, according to a report in Cancer Prevention Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. H. pylori infections are one of the most common bacterial infections worldwide and are a major cause of stomach cancer. The cancer protective effects of sulforaphane, a phytochemical from broccoli, have been known for almost two decades, but this is the first study to show an effect of broccoli in humans on the bacterial infection that leads to…

Singapore's Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (IBN) has developed the first tri-continuous mesoporous material using a unique surfactant template. This completely new porous structure previously been predicted only mathematically (see reference below). In the current Nature Chemistry (see reference below), the IBN scientists report that this novel material, named IBN-9 after the research institute, is the first hexagonal nanoscale construct with 3 unconnected interwoven channels. It is by far the most complex mesoporous nanostructure to have been synthesized in real-life and…

A new study in mice shows that a dual therapy can lead to generation of new blood vessels and improved cardiac function following a heart attack. The research, published by Cell Press in the April 3rd issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell, provides an explanation for the ineffectiveness of current stem-cell-mobilizing therapies and may drive design of future regenerative therapies for the heart. Stem-cell-based therapies are an attractive option for the treatment of heart damage after a heart attack, also known as myocardial infarction (MI). However, although animal studies using stem cells…

MADISON — If you've ever been sleep-deprived, you know the feeling that your brain is full of wool. Now, a study published in the April 3 edition of the journal Science has molecular and structural evidence of that woolly feeling — proteins that build up in the brains of sleep-deprived fruit flies and drop to lower levels in the brains of the well-rested. The proteins are located in the synapses, those specialized parts of neurons that allow brain cells to communicate with other neurons. Sleep researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health believe…

St. Louis, March 30, 2009 —A new theory about sleep's benefits for the brain gets a boost from fruit flies in this week's Science. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found evidence that sleep, already recognized as a promoter of long-term memories, also helps clear room in the brain for new learning. The critical question: How many synapses, or junctures where nerve cells communicate with each other, are modified by sleep? Neurologists believe creation of new synapses is one key way the brain encodes memories and learning, but this cannot continue unabated…

Florence, Italy: Preliminary research examining the difference in brain activity between soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and those without it moves scientists a step closer to the possibility of being able one day to use brain scans to help diagnose the condition. The search for the footprints left in the brain by psychiatric disorders such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a growing area of research. Scientists hope it will lead to the identification of brain patterns that could be used to improve diagnosis and track the effectiveness of treatment. The…

Lead concentrations in the blood are associated with an increased risk of death from coronary heart diseases (CHD). A study of 533 American women, published in BioMed Central's open access journal Environmental Health, has shown that those with blood lead concentrations above 8μg/dL were three times more likely to die of CHD. Naila Khalil worked with a team of researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Maryland to study the effects of lead on the mortality of a group of 65-87 year old women who had joined an earlier study between 1986 and 1988. These women have been…

A newly discovered genetic abnormality that appears to prevent some men from conceiving children could be the key for developing a male contraceptive, according to University of Iowa researchers reporting their findings in the April 2 online edition of the American Journal of Human Genetics. Although female oral contraceptives were developed over 40 years ago and have proven very effective for family planning, no similar pharmacological contraceptive has been developed for males. Surveys conducted by the Medical Research Council Reproductive Biology Unit in the United Kingdom, suggest that…