Body

(PHILADELPHIA) – A derivative of vitamin A, known as retinoic acid, found abundantly in sweet potato and carrots, helps turn pre-cancer cells back to normal healthy breast cells, according to research published this month in the International Journal of Oncology. The research could help explain why some clinical studies have been unable to see a benefit of vitamin A on cancer: the vitamin doesn't appear to change the course of full-blown cancer, only pre-cancerous cells, and only works at a very narrow dose.

The study, published today in PLOS Pathogens, explored the ways the rotavirus infection contributes to autoimmune disease in mice, and researchers believe the breakthrough could be relevant to human infection with rotavirus.

The research found that it may be the "bystander effect" that causes the rotavirus infection to accelerate the onset of type 1 diabetes.

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — Clonidine – a drug that reduces blood pressure and heart rate – increased rates of clinically concerning hypotension and non-fatal cardiac arrest after noncardiac surgery, according to the POISE-2 trial presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. With more than 10,000 patients in 23 countries, this randomized clinical trial is the largest study of clonidine in surgical patients.

WASHINGTON (March 31, 2014) — Patients given aspirin to prevent heart problems after non-heart-related surgery had a higher risk of serious bleeding than the patients who did not receive aspirin. At the same time, aspirin did not reduce incidence of post-operative heart attacks and death, according to data from POISE-2 presented at the American College of Cardiology's 63rd Annual Scientific Session. POISE-2 is the largest clinical trial focused on major cardiovascular complications in non-cardiac surgery.

Breast cancers can look and behave very differently. Understanding why and how they do so is key to designing more tailored therapies for patients and sparing them unnecessary treatments.

In a new study published by the Journal of Pathology, Dr Matt Smalley from Cardiff University treads new ground in exploring what drives breast cancers to look and behave so differently from one another.

Inadequate risk assessment, planning and training are among the gaps in many parts of Canada's Arctic, compounding the challenges of brutal weather, vast distances, difficult transportation and spotty communications and exposing the region's residents to the ever increasing risks of natural and man-made disasters and emergencies, according to a major new report released today.

"Now that I've had the procedure, I feel confident. I'm wearing clothes that I never really thought that I would wear. I've worn a bikini on the beach and I'm comfortable. I didn't feel the need to cover up in a towel or throw on a t-shirt to walk down the beach with my husband. I feel good." she said.

According to the latest statistics from ASPS, fewer than 53,000 breast lifts were performed in 2000. Last year there were 90,006, an increase of 70 percent since 2000, marking the first time that number has eclipsed 90,000.

A research group at Uppsala University, Sweden has developed a new responsive coating for implants used in surgery to improve their integration into bone and to prevent rejection. Neutron scattering experiments at the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble, France have shown how a protein that promotes bone growth binds to this surface and can be released in a controlled way.

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City have identified a biological process that may help physicians predict when someone with heart disease is likely to have a heart attack in the near future.

A new study by the team has identified plasma levels of two markers – microRNA 122 and 126 – that appear to decline a few days before a person suffers a heart attack. Results of the study could help the 715,000 Americans who suffer from heart attacks each year.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass-- The shells of a sea creature, the mollusk Placuna placenta, are not only exceptionally tough, but also clear enough to read through. Now, researchers at MIT have analyzed these shells to determine exactly why they are so resistant to penetration and damage — even though they are 99 percent calcite, a weak, brittle mineral.

Researchers at King's College London and Imperial College London have discovered that people with fewer copies of a gene coding for a carb-digesting enzyme may be at higher risk of obesity. The findings, published in Nature Genetics, suggest that dietary advice may need to be more tailored to an individual's digestive system, based on whether they have the genetic predisposition and necessary enzymes to digest different foods.

CAMBRIDGE, MA -- Using a new gene-editing system based on bacterial proteins, MIT researchers have cured mice of a rare liver disorder caused by a single genetic mutation.

The findings, described in the March 30 issue of Nature Biotechnology, offer the first evidence that this gene-editing technique, known as CRISPR, can reverse disease symptoms in living animals. CRISPR, which offers an easy way to snip out mutated DNA and replace it with the correct sequence, holds potential for treating many genetic disorders, according to the research team.

Researchers have discovered that mutations in a specific gene are responsible for a hereditary form of melanoma.

Every year in the UK, almost 12,000 people are diagnosed with melanoma, a form of skin cancer. About 1 in 20 people with melanoma have a strong family history of the disease. In these patients, pinpointing the genetic mutations that drive disease development allows dermatologists to identify people who should be part of melanoma surveillance programmes.

JUPITER, FL, March 30, 2014 – At first glance, measuring what the common fruit fly eats might seem like a trivial matter, but it is absolutely critical when it comes to conducting studies of aging, health, metabolism and disease. How researchers measure consumption can make all the difference in the accuracy of a study's conclusions.

Researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Murray, Utah, have discovered that elevated levels of two recently identified proteins in the body are inflammatory markers and indicators of the presence of cardiovascular disease.

These newly identified markers of inflammation, GlycA and GlycB, have the potential to contribute to better understanding of the inflammatory origins of heart disease and may be used in the future to identify a heart patient's future risk of suffering a heart attack, stroke, or even death.