Body

HOUSTON - A protein associated with cancer progression when abundant inside of tumors also unexpectedly regulates the creation of new blood vessels that feed the tumor outside, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in the August edition of Cancer Cell.

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Urinary catheters are often left in place longer than needed, and new research shows that reminder systems that encourage hospital staff to remove catheters promptly can reduce the rate of catheter-associated urinary tract infections by 52 percent.

DALLAS – Aug. 17, 2010 – Young adults who abuse amphetamines may be at greater risk of suffering a tear in the main artery leading from the heart, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found.

In the study, published in the August issue of American Heart Journal, researchers examined medical records from nearly 31 million people between 18 and 49 years old hospitalized from 1995 to 2007 and found that amphetamine abuse was associated with a threefold increase in the odds of aortic dissection.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Just what causes the birth of a human fat cell is a mystery, but scientists using mathematics to tackle the question have come up with a few predictions about the proteins that influence this process.

The research is intended to increase understanding of how and why preadipocytes, or pre-fat cells, either lie dormant, copy themselves or turn into fat. But the findings eventually could lead to a way to freeze these early cells in their current state before they can ever become the basis of fat tissue, according to Ohio State University researchers.

Having charted the occurrence of a common chemical change that takes place while stem cells decide their fates and progress from precursor to progeny, a Johns Hopkins-led team of scientists has produced the first-ever epigenetic landscape map for tissue differentiation.

The details of this collaborative study between Johns Hopkins, Stanford and Harvard appear August 15 in the early online publication of Nature.

DETROIT – The Donor Risk Index, which assesses donor characteristics impacting liver transplantation outcomes, does not bear the same impact on outcomes on a small scale as is suggested from large-scale, national data.

Rather, hepatitis C was shown to continue to be the major contributor to poor graft survival in transplant patients, according to a Henry Ford Hospital.

The goals of the study were to confirm the effect of the Donor Risk Index on liver transplant recipients and to evaluate further donor and recipient characteristics on transplant outcomes.

FINDINGS: Short pieces of RNA, called microRNAs, control protein production primarily by causing the proteins' RNA templates (known as messenger RNA or mRNA) to be disabled by the cell, according to Whitehead Institute scientists.

Researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have for the first time developed a way to visualize coronary artery plaques vulnerable to rupture using multi-color computed tomography (CT), an innovation that will lead to better and earlier diagnosis of cardiovascular disease. The data are published in the September issue of Radiology.

Physical abuse and maltreatment by in-laws is not uncommon among pregnant and postpartum women in India, and may be compromising maternal and child health, according to a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health [BUSPH] researcher.

BOSTON (August 16, 2010) — Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine and Tufts Medical Center have identified an RNA sequence that promotes increased numbers of specific microRNAs (miRNAs), molecules that regulate cell growth, development, and stress response. The discovery helps researchers understand the links between miRNA expression and disease, including heart disease and cancer. The findings are published in the August 13 issue of Molecular Cell.

When JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater creatively deplaned earlier this week, many questions arose as to why someone would be willing to give up a steady paycheck during these tough economic times. While this "working man's hero" will most likely be questioning his motives as he hands over his lawyer's fees, a new report in Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that his action may be a sign of trouble for JetBlue and other large companies.

Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have for the first time identified 12 genes that could be associated with aggressive breast tumours. The discovery could result in more reliable prognoses and better treatment strategies for patients.

The results, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, are based on analyses of breast tumours from 97 female breast cancer patients. Half of these patients died within eight years of diagnosis, while the remainder survived for more than eight years.

As part of the £1.5 million project, researchers are now testing the drug to determine how the treatment could progress to clinical trials. The drug is made from simple organic molecules and will be cheaper to mass produce compared to existing therapies.

Climate change is causing higher air and water temperatures along the east coast of the United States. These changes have shrunk the geographic region where blue mussels are able to survive, according to findings by University of South Carolina researchers published in the Journal of Biogeography.

Mytilus edulis, or blue mussels, a popular seafood, used to live along the East Coast as far south as Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, but now exist only as far south as Lewes, Delaware, according to Sierra Jones, a PhD student in the Department of Biological Sciences at USC.