Body

A new study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene details the hazards of lead battery manufacturing and recycling operations in emerging markets. Children living near these facilities in developing countries had approximately 13 times more lead in their blood than American children.

The mystery of how a butterfly has changed its wing patterns to mimic neighboring species and avoid being eaten by birds has been solved by a team of European scientists.

The greatest evolutionary thinkers have all wondered how butterflies that taste bad to birds have evolved the same patterns of warning coloration. Now, researchers led by the CNRS (Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris) and the University of Exeter (UK) have shown how butterflies perform this amazing trick, known as 'Müllerian mimicry'.

A pandemic of ailments sometimes called the 'allergic march' and referring to the gradual acquisition of overlapping allergic diseases that commonly begins in early childhood has frustrated both parents and physicians. For the last three decades, an explosion of eczema, food allergies, hay fever, and asthma have afflicted children in the United States, the European Union, and many other countries.

In a new study, Sanford-Burnham scientists show that dietary fats interfere with an enzyme called GnT-4a glycosyltransferase, which is required for proper retention of glucose transporters in pancreatic beta cell membranes. Without functioning GnT-4a, clinical signs of diabetes emerged in mice fed a high-fat diet. The team is now considering methods to augment the enzyme's activity in humans, as a means to prevent or treat type 2 diabetes.

For human embryonic stem cell research to make it to prime time in therapy, it takes more than laboratory tissue cultures. Within batches of newly generated cells lurks a big potential problem: Any remaining embryonic stem cells, those that haven't differentiated into the desired tissue, can go on to become dangerous tumors called teratomas when transplanted into patients.

Among the many qualities that make us unique is our personalized collection of trillions of friendly microbes in our intestines. They help break down food our bodies otherwise couldn't digest.

The relationship is generally a healthy one, but changes to the mix of microbes in the digestive tract are suspected to play a role in obesity, malnutrition, Crohn's disease and other ailments.

A laboratory mouse model that develops signs of the paralyzing disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) as they age has been important in research of Lou Gehrig's Disease but a new study in Nature Biotechnology, highlights investigators at Nationwide Children's Hospital who have developed a new model of ALS, one that mimics sporadic ALS, which represents about 90 percent of all cases.

Prostate cancer that has become resistant to hormone treatment and that does not respond to radiation or chemotherapy requires new methods of treatment. By attacking stem cell-like cells in prostate cancer, researchers at Lund University are working on a project to develop a new treatment option.

Increasing public awareness of the childhood obesity epidemic may be contributing to evidence of overall reductions in body mass index, a measure of obesity in children, according to the results of a nationwide study presented in Childhood Obesity, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert Inc.

Heart disease causes 35 percent of deaths in young adults with chronic kidney disease. Children with only mildly impaired kidney function experience poor growth, delayed puberty, metabolic problems, and high blood pressure. Treating these conditions during childhood might slow kidney disease and prevent heart-related deaths in young adults.

NOAA scientists have found that environmental factors have changed the distribution patterns of Atlantic mackerel (Scomber scombrus), a marine species found in waters from Cape Hatteras to Newfoundland, shifting the stock northeastward and into shallower waters. Atlantic mackerel migrate great distances on a seasonal basis to feed and spawn, and are sensitive to changes in water temperature. These findings could have significant implications for US commercial and recreational mackerel fisheries that mostly occur during late winter and early spring.

Researchers have uncovered a mechanism by which stress increases food drive in rats. This new discovery, published online this week in the journal Neuron, could provide important insight into why stress is thought to be one of the underlying contributors to obesity.

Researchers have shown for the first time that stem cells injected into enlarged hearts reduced heart size, reduced scar tissue and improved function to injured heart areas, according to a small trial in Circulation Research: Journal of the American Heart Association.

This research is in the early stages but the findings are promising for the more than five million Americans who have enlarged hearts due to damage from heart attacks. Affected patients can suffer premature death, have major disability and experience frequent hospitalizations.

Disorders of the circulatory system- vascular diseases- are common in the developed world, and can lead to heart attacks, strokes and even death. However, treatments for these disorders, such as bypass surgery and angioplasty, themselves induce vascular injury, after which the cells of the blood vessel can over-proliferate in a way that limits blood flow.

BOSTON (August 11, 2011) – Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center and Children’s Hospital Boston have shown that a type of “good” fat known as brown fat occurs in varying amounts in children – increasing until puberty and then declining -- and is most active in leaner children.

The study used PET imaging data to document children’s amounts and activity of brown fat, which, unlike white fat, burns energy instead of storing it. Results were published in The Journal of Pediatrics.