Body

Initial scepticism about plain packs faded amongst smokers and the more supportive a person was, the more likely they were to try quitting, researchers found.

Plain packaging for tobacco products was fully implemented in Australia on 1 December 2012 along with larger graphic health warnings. The new packs had to have branding and trademarks removed except for allowing the brand name in a standard font on the pack as well as large health warnings.

Laundry detergent pods began appearing on U.S. store shelves in early 2010, and people have used them in growing numbers ever since. The small packets can be tossed into a washing machine without ever having to measure out a liquid or powder. The convenience, though, has come with risks for young children.

We live with the same cartilage, the tissue that connects our joints, for a lifetime. And since we can't readily make new cartilage cells, we had better figure out how to keep what we have healthy.

Duke scientists and their collaborators have come a step closer to understanding how cartilage senses injury-causing mechanical strain at the cellular level: a pair of channels that work together to cause cartilage cells to die off in droves.

The explosive organic compound pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) might one day allow pregnant women to protect their daughters from developing high blood pressure before they're born, according to an animal study published in the American Heart Association's journal Hypertension.

Researchers assessed the effect of PETN on pregnant rats with high blood pressure and their offspring. Pregnant rats were fed food mixed with 50 mg/kg of PETN every day during pregnancy and lactation periods.

Australian researchers have uncovered how the massive DNA molecules that appear in some tumours are formed like Frankenstein's monster, stitched together from other parts of the genome. This solves a decades-old mystery and explains how these tumours ensure their own survival.

Scientists believe a new treatment, shown to be effective in mice, could halt the growth of tumours in patients with prostate cancer.

Pioneering research, by academics at the Universities of Bristol, Nottingham and the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), shows that a specific compound can inhibit the activity of a molecule which is key to how tumours form new blood vessels. The vessels are essential for the cancer cells to survive and multiply.

Boston, MA - Among pregnant women infected with HIV, the use of antiretroviral (ARV) medications early in pregnancy to treat their HIV or to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV does not appear to increase the risk of birth defects in their infants, according to a new study led by Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). It is one of the largest studies to date to look at the safety of ARV use during pregnancy.

Preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn deaths worldwide. Maternal infection is one known cause of preterm birth; however, preventative antibiotic treatment has not lowered preterm birth rates. The cervix provides structural support and serves as a barrier for infection during pregnancy and undergoes dramatic remodeling during the birth process. The extracellular matrix component hyaluronan (HA) is increased in the cervix throughout pregnancy and has been thought to contribute to cervical elasticity during birth.

Stanford, CA--Photosynthesis is probably the most well-known aspect of plant biochemistry. It enables plants, algae, and select bacteria to transform the energy from sunlight during the daytime into chemical energy in the form of sugars and starches (as well as oils and proteins), and it involves taking in carbon dioxide from the air and releasing oxygen derived from water molecules. Photosynthetic organisms undergo other types of biochemical reactions at night, when they generate energy by breaking down those sugars and starches that were stored during the day.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Use of "antibiograms" in skilled nursing facilities could improve antibiotic effectiveness and help address problems with antibiotic resistance that are becoming a national crisis, researchers conclude in a new study.

Antibiograms are tools that aid health care practitioners in prescribing antibiotics in local populations, such as a hospital, nursing home or the community. They are based on information from microbiology laboratory tests and provide information on how likely a certain antibiotic is to effectively treat a particular infection.

Interstitial lung disease is a significant risk factor for lung inflammation following stereotactic body radiation therapy for lung cancer.

DENVER - Pretreatment interstitial lung disease (ILD) is a significant risk factor for developing symptomatic and severe radiation pneumonitis in stage I non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) alone.

Cats and humans have shared the same households for at least 9,000 years, but we still know very little about how our feline friends became domesticated. An analysis of the cat genome by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis reveals some surprising clues.

The research appears Nov. 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition.

Cats have a relatively recent history of domestication compared with dogs; canines arose from wolves over 30,000 years ago.

Regulation of a single, specific gene in a brain region related to drug addiction and depression is sufficient to reduce drug and stress responses, according to a study conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published October 27 online in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

The Mount Sinai study focuses on epigenetics, the study of changes in the action of human genes caused, not by changes in DNA code we inherit from our parents, but instead by molecules that regulate when, where and to what degree our genetic material is activated.

The adult human body is made up of about 37 trillion cells. Microbes, mainly bacteria, outnumber body cells by 10 to 1. Increasingly, scientists recognize that this huge community of microbes, called the microbiome, affects the health, development and evolution of all multicellular organisms, including humans.

Results of a federally-funded pooled analysis of five prospective cohort studies indicate that cigarette smoking prior to the first diagnosis of lung (stage I), bladder, kidney or head and neck cancer increases risk of developing a second smoking-associated cancer. This is the largest study to date exploring risk of second cancers among current smokers.