Body

A system developed by investigators at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Engineering in Medicine allowed successful transplantation of rat livers after preservation for as long as four days, more than tripling the length of time organs currently can be preserved. The team describes their protocol – which combines below-freezing temperatures with the use of two protective solutions and machine perfusion of the organ – in a Nature Medicine paper receiving advance online publication.

Researchers have developed new methods to trace the life history of individual cells back to their origins in the fertilised egg. By looking at the copy of the human genome present in healthy cells, they were able to build a picture of each cell's development from the early embryo on its journey to become part of an adult organ.

During the life of an individual, all cells in the body develop mutations, known as somatic mutations, which are not inherited from parents or passed on to offspring. These somatic mutations carry a coded record of the lifetime experiences of each cell.

Using artificial lipid vesicles, biochemists show how membrane proteins transport ammonium

Studies have shown that smokers, in addition to exposing their lungs to harmful toxins, often eat less fruits and vegetables than non-smokers. Given the role of fruit and vegetable based antioxidants in improving respiratory health and the difficulty of achieving lasting dietary change, researchers hypothesized that powdered fruit and vegetable supplements could improve respiratory function in heavy smokers.

A high-fructose, high-fat diet can cause harmful effects to the livers of adult rats, according to new research published today [27 June] in Experimental Physiology, providing new insight into the effects of adding fructose to a Western diet high in fat.

The study showed that short-term consumption of a Western diet, rich in saturated fats and fructose, is more damaging for healthy liver development than following a high fat diet alone.

Dr Susanna Iossa, who led the study at the University of Naples, Italy, said:

HIV and its transmission has long been associated with injecting drug use, where hypodermic syringes are used to administer illicit drugs. Now, a newly reported study by researchers affiliated with New York University's Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR) in the journal PLOS ONE, shows that HIV infection among heterosexual non-injecting drug users (no hypodermic syringe is used; drugs are taken orally or nasally) in New York City (NYC) has now surpassed HIV infection among persons who inject drugs.

New research raises the prospect that some cancer patients with aggressive tumors may benefit from a class of anti-inflammatory drugs used to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Studying triple-negative breast cancer, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis found that some aggressive tumors rely on an antiviral pathway that appears to drive inflammation, widely recognized for roles in cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory diseases.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — You wouldn't think that mechanical force — the simple kind used to eject unruly patrons from bars, shoe a horse or emboss the raised numerals on credit cards — could process nanoparticles more subtly than the most advanced chemistry.

Yet, in a current paper in Nature Communications, Sandia National Laboratories researcher Hongyou Fan and colleagues appear to have achieved a start toward that end.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Scientists in the United States and India have successfully modified the precursor to one of the drugs used to treat tuberculosis, an important first step toward new drugs that can transcend antibiotic resistance issues that experts consider a serious threat to global health.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, indicate that a new compound, 24-desmethylrifampicin, has much better antibacterial activity than rifampicin against multi-drug-resistant strains of the bacteria that cause tuberculosis.

A small, drab and highly inconspicuous moth has been flitting nameless about its special niche among the middle elevations of one of the world's oldest mountain ranges, the southern Appalachian Mountains in North America. A team of American scientists has now identified this new to science species as Cherokeea attakullakulla and described it in a special issue of the open access journal ZooKeys.

Scientists have discovered that the Lassa virus, which is endemic to West Africa, uses an unexpected two-step process to enter cells. The results, published in today's edition of the journal Science, suggest that the mechanism by which Lassa virus causes infection is more complicated than previously known.

Climate change is predicted to have major impacts on the many species that call our rocky shorelines home. Indeed, species living in these intertidal habitats, which spend half their day exposed to air and the other half submerged by water, may be subjected to a double whammy as both air and water temperatures rise. Given the reliance of human society on nearshore coastal ecosystems, it is critical that we better understand how climate change will affect them.

Researchers from the University of Granada have discovered that colon cancer survivors are more likely to suffer future lesions related with pain in the back and lower abdomen than healthy individuals of the same gender and age.

These patients present a series of abnormalities in the abdominal wall architecture—the site of surgery in oncological treatment. Moreover, they have specific abnormalities in processing chronic pain that may increase their sensitization to any kind of pain in the future.

Einstein once observed that "it is harder to crack prejudice than an atom". If he was right, then Hans Rosling is faced with a labour of Hercules. As Professor of International Health at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, he finds himself fighting against the cliché that the world is divided between rich and poor. "This neat division simply no longer exists. The statistics reveal a far more complex picture, with more and more people worldwide living in relative prosperity. This means that in health research in particular it is time for a paradigm shift," says Rosling.

PITTSBURGH, June 27, 2014 – As hormone levels change during the transition to menopause, the quality of a woman's cholesterol carriers degrades, leaving her at greater risk for heart disease, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health discovered.

The first-of-its-kind evaluation, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), was done using an advanced method to characterize cholesterol carriers in the blood and is published in the July issue of the Journal of Lipid Research.