Body

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A Loyola University Health System study has found another reason to not binge drink alcohol.

Binge drinking, researchers found, could change the body's immune system response to orthopaedic injury. "This tremendously complicates the trauma care of these patients," said bone biologist John Callaci, PhD, senior author of the study.

The study, which was based on a rodent model, is being published in the April 20, 2011 issue of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, now available online.

Researchers have long questioned why patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) tend to manage well through childhood and adolescence, yet succumb to their disease in early adulthood, or why elderly people who lose muscle strength following bed rest find it difficult or impossible to regain. Now, researchers at the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), part of the National Institutes of Health, are beginning to find answers in a specialized population of cells called satellite cells.

SAN FRANCISCO – April 16, 2011 – Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have identified networks of genes that play an important role in embryonic-heart development, advancing knowledge of how healthy hearts develop—and offering clues about how to combat a common birth defect known as congenital heart disease.

JUPITER, FL, April 17, 2011 – Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute have developed the first of a new class of highly selective compounds that effectively suppresses the severity of multiple sclerosis in animal models. The new compound could provide new and potentially more effective therapeutic approaches to multiple sclerosis and other autoimmune diseases that affect patients worldwide.

The study appeared April 17, 2011, in an advance online edition of the journal Nature.

Surgeons should encourage men who request penile lengthening surgery to try non-invasive methods first and, in some cases, consider therapy to help them feel more positive about their body.

An Italian review published in the April issue of the urology journal BJUI found that penile extenders are more successful than techniques like vacuum devices, exercises and botox injections and that psychological satisfaction is often just as important as physical changes.

Washington, D.C. – Parents offered genetic testing to predict their risks of common, adult-onset health conditions say they would also test their children. That is the finding of a new study published in the May issue of Pediatrics (published online April 18). The study authors note these and other findings should put pediatricians on alert that parents may chose predictive genetic tests for themselves and for their children, and seek guidance from doctors about what to do with the information.

It was previously thought that land plants evolved from stonewort-like algae. However, new research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology shows that the closest relatives to land plants are actually conjugating green algae such as Spirogyra.

Bremerhaven/Geesthacht/Potsdam, 14 April 2011. The coastline in Arctic regions reacts to climate change with increased erosion and retreats by half a metre per year on average. This means substantial changes for Arctic ecosystems near the coast and the population living there.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — In two new studies, researchers provide the first detailed view of the elaborate chemical and mechanical interactions that allow the ribosome – the cell's protein-building machinery – to insert a growing protein into the cellular membrane.

The first study, in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, gives an atom-by-atom snapshot of a pivotal stage in the insertion process: the moment just after the ribosome docks to a channel in the membrane and the newly forming protein winds its way into the membrane where it will reside.

Whether you're talking about genes, or neurons, or the workings of a virus, at the most fundamental level, biology is a matter of proteins. So understanding what protein complexes look like and how they operate is the key to figuring out what makes cells tick. By harnessing the unique properties of polarized light, Rockefeller scientists have now developed a new technique that can help deduce the orientation of specific proteins within the cell.

SAN DIEGO – (April 17, 2011) – Michael Croft, Ph.D., a researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy & Immunology, has discovered a molecule's previously unknown role as a major trigger for airway remodeling, which impairs lung function, making the molecule a promising therapeutic target for chronic asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and several other lung conditions. A scientific paper on Dr. Croft's finding was published online today in the prestigious journal, Nature Medicine.

Dr. Richer, speaking at his 4th annual Nutrition & The Eye conference, April 16-17, hosted by the College of Optometry at the University of Missouri in St. Louis, says molecular medicine is beginning to provide hope for patients with declining sight when all other therapies have been exhausted. "These nutritional molecules have begun to be rigorously studied around the world in cardiology , cancer research and some human studies", Dr Richer reported.

DETROIT – A series of new guidelines for cardiac specialists has been developed to determine when heart failure patients should receive a mechanical heart-pumping device.

PHILADELPHIA – (April 15, 2011) – The proteins that provide cells with a sense of personal space could lead to a therapeutic target for Neurofibromatosis Type 2 (NF2), an inherited cancer disorder, according to researchers at The Wistar Institute. Their findings, which appear in the April 12 issue of the journal Cancer Cell, could have profound implications for NF2 and related cancers, such as mesothelioma.

DETROIT – Non-cardiac surgery can be performed safely in patients with a heart device typically implanted into patients waiting for a transplant, according to a study at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.

The left ventricular assist device (LVAD) is a mechanical pump implanted in the chest to help a weakened heart pump blood.