Body

New human heart muscle cells can be formed, but this mainly happens during the first ten years of life, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. Other cell types, however, are replaced more quickly. The study, which is published in the journal Cell, demonstrates that the heart muscle is regenerated throughout a person's life, supporting the idea that it is possible to stimulate the rebuilding of lost heart tissue.

New recommendations by EULAR for women's health and pregnancy in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and/or antiphospholipid syndrome (APS) were presented today at the European League Against Rheumatism Annual Congress (EULAR 2015). Developed by expert consensus, these evidence-based recommendations provide crucial guidance to support family planning, assisted reproduction, pregnancy and the menopause in these patients.

Adults who are following the DASH-style eating pattern to lower their blood pressure can expand their protein options to include lean, unprocessed pork, according to research from Purdue University.

'This study supports that the DASH diet can include lean, unprocessed red meats in the appropriate serving sizes,' said Wayne Campbell, a professor of nutrition science.

Housing improvements could reduce malaria cases by half in some settings, according to research published in the open access Malaria Journal.

As mosquitoes become resistant to insecticides and malaria parasites become resistant to drugs, researchers looked at how making changes to houses might contribute to tackling the deadly disease.

An American study in mice reveals that hormones that dictate a female's attraction towards males do so in part by controlling her sense of smell. The findings, published June 4 in Cell, provide an example of how hormones may use the nose to circumvent the brain and influence behavior.

Scientists from the Florida campus of The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) have found that a drug candidate with anticancer potential can be activated by one of the body's natural responses to cellular stress. Once activated, the agent can kill prostate cancer cells.

"There is no proven drug right now with these activities," said Ben Shen, vice chair of TSRI's Department of Chemistry and senior author of the new study, "so this points the way toward a new therapeutic opportunity."

A Canadian study published in the June issue of the journal CHEST found weight loss reduced asthma severity as measured by airway hyperresponsiveness (AHR) in obese adults. The incidence of asthma is 1.47 times higher in obese people than non-obese people, and a three-unit increase in body mass index is associated with a 35% increase in the risk of asthma.

Thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection (TAAD), an enlargement or tearing of the walls of the aorta in the chest, is, together with abdominal aortic aneurysms, responsible for about 2% of all deaths in Western countries. The aorta is the largest artery in the body, and carries blood from the heart. About one out of every five patients with TAAD has a family member with the same disorder, therefore indicating a genetic cause. However, the relevant genetic mutations discovered so far only explain about 30% of all cases.

In many animal species, the chromosomes differ between the sexes. The male has a Y chromosome. In some animals, however, for example birds, it is the other way round. In birds, the females have their own sex chromosome, the W chromosome. For the first, researchers in Uppsala have mapped the genetic structure and evolution of the W chromosome.

Researchers have discovered that a rabbit virus can deliver a one-two punch, killing some kinds of cancer cells while eliminating a common and dangerous complication of bone marrow transplants. For patients with blood cancers such as leukemia and multiple myeloma, a bone marrow transplant can be both curative and perilous. It replenishes marrow lost to disease or chemotherapy but raises the risk that newly transplanted white blood cells will attack the recipient's body.

A daily sugar-sweetened beverage habit may increase the risk for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).

Until now, de novo genetic mutations, alterations in a gene found for the first time in one family member, were believed to be mainly the result of new mutations in the sperm or eggs (germline) of one of the parents and passed on to their child.

Researchers from The Netherlands have now succeeded in determining that at least 6.5% of de novo mutations occur during the development of the child (post-zygotic) rather than from the germline of a parent. The research is published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics*.

You are a patient who has just been treated for a serious illness but neither you nor your doctor knows how likely it is that you -- in comparison with other patients -- will actually be helped by the treatment. This is often the situation with prostate cancer, one of the deadliest and most highly prevalent cancers. While hormone therapy can help, patient responses vary widely, and it's still unclear why some types of prostate cancer seem to be resistant to the therapy.

Cancer has overtaken cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease and stroke, as the UK's No 1 killer--but only among men, reveals research published online in the journal Heart.

Cardiovascular disease is still the most common cause of death among women, and kills more young women than breast cancer, the figures show.

Many aquatic species have a reputation for negligent parenting. Having cast their gametes to the currents, they abandon their offspring to their fate. However, hands-on parenting is taken to a whole new dimension in the Syngnathidae fish family. Instead of leaving the responsibility to the females, seahorse and pipefish males take the pledge to care for their young even before the eggs are fertilized. The females depart soon after placing their eggs directly into the male's brood pouch, leaving the soon-to-be fathers to incubate the developing embryos.