Body

Angiotensin 1-7, a hormone in the body that has cardiovascular benefits, improves the metabolic syndrome in rats, according to a new study. The results will be presented Wednesday at The Endocrine Society's 91st Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

"No specific form of medical therapy for the metabolic syndrome presently exists," said the study's lead author, Yonit Marcus, MD, a PhD student at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. "But an estimated 20 to 25 percent of the world's adult population has the metabolic syndrome."

Baboons whose mothers have strong relationships with other females are much more likely to survive to adulthood than baboons reared by less social mothers, according to a new study by researchers at UCLA, the University of Pennsylvania and other institutions.

June 9, 2009 -- Many cancerous tumors possess a genetic mutation that disables a tumor suppressor called PTEN. Now researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shown why inactivation of PTEN allows tumors to resist radiation therapy.

The PTEN gene produces a protein found in almost all tissues in the body. This protein acts as a tumor suppressor by preventing cells from growing and dividing too rapidly. Mutations in PTEN are frequently found in prostate cancer and endometrial cancer, melanoma and certain aggressive brain tumors.

In a world-first breakthrough, University of New South Wales (UNSW) medical researchers have used stem cells cultured on a simple contact lens to restore sight to sufferers of blinding corneal disease.

Sight was significantly improved within weeks of the procedure, which is simple, inexpensive and requires a minimal hospital stay.

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Steelhead trout that are originally bred in hatcheries are so genetically impaired that, even if they survive and reproduce in the wild, their offspring will also be significantly less successful at reproducing, according to a new study published today by researchers from Oregon State University.

The poor reproductive fitness – the ability to survive and reproduce – of the wild-born offspring of hatchery fish means that adding hatchery fish to wild populations may ultimately be hurting efforts to sustain those wild runs, scientists said.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. - According to a research abstract that will be presented on Wednesday, June 10, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, increased sleep disturbances are associated with lower education, income or being unmarried or unemployed. Disturbances are much more likely in multiracial individuals.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Quality, in addition to quantity, is important for maintaining health, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Wednesday, June 10, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Results indicate that over the average follow-up of eight years, 854 of the 5,614 participants died. Two sleep-stage transition types were associated with higher mortality risk: wake-to-non-REM and non-REM-to-wake.

WESTCHESTER, Ill. – Contrary to popular belief, the timing of sleep in new mothers is preserved after giving birth, according to a research abstract that will be presented on Wednesday, June 10, at SLEEP 2009, the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.

Cancer is the result of Darwinian evolution among populations of cells, in which the fittest cells win the struggle for survival, while ultimately killing the person of whom they are a part.

The mutator hypothesis, which states that normal human cells increase their rate of genetic change as a mechanism for speeding up the transformation to cancer cells, has been a pivotal concept in cancer biology for over 30 years, influencing our ideas both of how cancer arises and of the challenges of developing cancer therapies.

Coral reefs throughout the Caribbean have been comprehensively 'flattened' over the last 40 years, according to a disturbing new study by the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The collapse of reef structure has serious implications for biodiversity and coastal defences – a double whammy for fragile coastal communities in the region.

It was already known that coral cover in the Caribbean was in decline, but this is the first large scale study showing exactly what this means for the architecture of the region's reefs.

Climate change is altering North American winter bird communities in ways that models currently favored by ecologists fail to predict.

Based on patterns of animals found in different climate zones today, ecologists would expect that as habitats warm, numbers of species found there will increase, and that those species will be smaller in size and restricted to narrower geographic ranges. Ecologists at the University of California, San Diego have found that only one of those three predictions has held for North American birds over the past quarter century.

African bird species could struggle to relocate to survive global warming because natural features of the landscape will limit where they can move to, according to new research published today (10 June) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. As the global climate changes, some land bird species will be forced to move to new habitats, expanding and shifting their natural geographical 'range', in order to maintain suitable living conditions.

People with a family history of genetic disease are often discriminated against by insurance companies and their relatives and friends, according to research published on bmj.com today.

Advances in genetic testing have meant that many individuals have been able to tailor treatment and inform reproductive decisions. However, these powerful new technologies have also caused fear about the misuse of genetic information including discrimination, say the authors.

As Darwin observed, natural selection leading to adaptation of individuals and populations is occurring gradually and all the time. But over very long spans of time, the major channels of genetic organization, organism form, and the different ways organisms develop arose as outcomes of history-dependent variation that is now channeled, or constrained, within different groups of organisms.

For example, most cats look like cats, develop like cats, but have a fossil record that begins from less than cat-like ancestors. So do snails, and crabs, and so on.

Moms who have used drugs may be doing their teens a favour by admitting to it, University of Alberta research shows.

A survey of 3,530 Alberta youth Grades 7 to 12 revealed that teens were more likely to use drugs if they knew that their mothers had used drugs but did not pressure their kids to avoid the practice.