Muscle in Biological News

Reducing risk of hospitalization in the elderly

... less strength, poor physical function and low muscle density are at higher risk of being hospitalized ... Geriatric Society . The study also found that muscle density, a measure of how much fat compared to ... gauge of a person's risk of hospitalization than muscle mass or size. The relative risk for ...

New drug may reduce heart attack damage

... gene can dramatically reduce heart muscle damage after a heart attack and may lead to ... gene, which is responsible for inflammation and muscle death in the aftermath of a heart attack, trials ... of a normal recovery," he said. The heart muscle suffers damage at two distinct times during a ...

Sticky protein helps reinforce fragile muscle membranes

... by scientists at the University of Iowa shows why muscle membranes don't rupture when healthy people ... ( PNAS ) Early Edition, also helps explain why muscle damage is so severe when this mechanism is ... alpha dystroglycan as the "glue" that binds muscle membranes to a tough layer of extracellular ...

'Show me the money!' MDA greenlights grants

... reasserts its leadership in the fight against muscle diseases by announcing grants to innovative ... Howell. There are no cures yet for most muscle diseases, but the research MDA has funded has ... therapy developed by Genzyme for a metabolic muscle disease called Pompe disease. At Columbia ...

Triggering muscle development -- a therapeutic cure for muscle wastage?

... and exercised their legs showed an appreciable muscle mass increase. Dr. Geoff Goldspink (Royal Free ... raises the question: Can age-related loss of muscle strength and increased fragility be ameliorated ... an option. It may even prove useful to ameliorate muscle loss resulting from long periods in zero-gravity ...

Stem cell surprise for tissue regeneration

... that identified critical genes for making muscle stem cells. It turns out that the genes that make muscle stem cells in the embryo are surprisingly not needed in adult muscle stem cells to regenerate muscles after injury. ...

Muscle atrophy through thick but not thin

... During desperate times, such as fasting, or muscle wasting that afflicts cancer or AIDS patients, ... itself, atrophying and breaking down skeletal muscle proteins to liberate amino acids. In a new study ... Cohen, Alfred Goldberg, and colleagues show that muscle atrophy is a more ordered process than was ...

New study finds lowfat chocolate milk is effective post-exercise recovery aid for soccer players

... was found to provide equal or possibly superior muscle recovery compared to a high-carbohydrate recovery ... conducted specific tests to evaluate "markers" of muscle recovery. All of the athletes increased ... lower levels of creatine kinase an indicator of muscle damage compared to when they drank the ...

Resilin springs simplify the control of crustacean limb movements

... limb movements by moving a joint with just one muscle that operates against a spring made of the almost ... by saving the space that would be required for a muscle to do the job of 'resetting' the movement, the resilin spring allows the muscle that generates the power stroke to become larger ...

UCSF discovers new glucose-regulating protein linked with diabetes

... is controlled by insulin, which stimulates the muscle cells to import glucose by means of a system ... to insulin. In type 2 diabetes, however, the muscle and fat cells fail to respond appropriately to ... research identified a protein in both human muscle and fat cells, called CHC22, which appears to ...

Is cherry juice a new 'sports drink?'

... didn't. Post-exercise pain can often indicate muscle damage or debilitating injuries. In the study ... of a long-distance relay had significantly less muscle pain following the race than those who drank ... food alternative, like cherry juice, to reduce muscle inflammation before exercise." The researchers ...

Adult bone marrow stem cells injected into skeletal muscle can repair heart tissue

... adult bone marrow stem cells into skeletal muscle can repair cardiac tissue, reversing heart ... or injecting them into the myocardium, the heart muscle -- invasive methods that can result in harmful ... no evidence that they differentiated into heart muscle cells. In addition, diseased tissue is not a ...

New therapy substitutes missing protein in those with muscular dystrophy

... forms a key part of the framework that holds muscle tissue together that results in the disease, effectively repairing weakened muscle tissue. Researchers injected dystrophic mice ... of muscular dystrophy as well as cardiac muscle diseases caused by loss of dystrophin. The ...

Heart protein regulates blood vessel maintenance

... necessary for the quiescence of vascular smooth muscle cells (vSMCs), which line blood vessels. Vascular smooth muscle cells undergo a process in diseases such as ... play a role in the maintenance of smooth muscle cells in the pulmonary artery. In this study, the ...

Single gene defect can cause stroke, other artery diseases

... at Houston. The study, "Mutations in Smooth muscle Alpha-Actin (ACTA2) Cause Early Onset Coronary ... become occluded. The main function of smooth muscle cells is to contract in response to the ... from mutant aortas and analysis of smooth muscle cells removed from patients and grown in the ...

Stanford scientists turn adult skin cells into muscle and vice versa

... they transformed human skin cells into mouse muscle cells and vice versa. This research shows that by ... first used a chemical treatment to fuse skin and muscle cells together, producing cells that had nuclei from human skin cells and mouse muscle cells. By being encapsulated within the same cell ...

Heart attacks: The tipping point

... electrical activity coupling two types of heart muscle cells, Dr. Zlochiver has discovered a new way of ... is made up of myocytes, which are contractile muscle cells. The remaining 30% is mostly rigid structural cells called fibroblasts that work to hold the muscle in place," Dr. Zlochiver explains. "As the heart ...

Ultrasound imaging now possible with a smartphone

... Researchers now know that physical changes in muscle tissue can indicate the efficacy of the steroids. Measuring these changes in muscle can be accomplished with ultrasound and may allow ... can be trained to do ultrasound to track muscle condition," Zar said. "This could lower the ...

Grouping muscles to make controlling limbs easier

... -- a finding that could make it easier to restore muscle movements in people who have become paralyzed. ... shows that researchers can control the limb using muscle groups just about as well as if they controlled ... National Academy of Sciences . "By controlling muscle groups instead of individual muscles, we're ...

Oral contraceptives impair muscle gains in young women

... has now examined the effects of OC on female muscle mass, and found that oral contraceptive use impairs muscle gains in young women, and is associated with ... new study entitled Oral Contraceptive Use Impairs muscle Gains in Young Women. It was conducted by ...

Oral contraceptives impair muscle gains in young women

... has now examined the effects of OC on female muscle mass, and found that oral contraceptive use impairs muscle gains in young women, and is associated with ... new study entitled Oral Contraceptive Use Impairs muscle Gains in Young Women. It was conducted by ...

Long-lasting nerve block could change pain management

... in rats without apparent toxicity to nerve or muscle cells. The research was published online April 13 ... of pain without causing significant nerve or muscle damage. In lab experiments, the researchers ... confirmed that the formulations were not toxic to muscle or nerve cells. Furthermore, when the team ...

Astronauts may need more intense workouts to maintain muscle fitness in space

... need to modify their workouts to avoid extensive muscle loss during missions onboard the International ... exercise regimen for astronauts to improve their muscle performance while in space for extended stays. ... of the Ball State study were based in part on muscle biopsies taken from the astronauts, the first ...

As good as it gets: Octogenarian muscles don't get stronger with exercise

... 2009) Octogenarian women were unable to increase muscle mass after a 3-month weight lifting program ... found resistance training capable of increasing muscle mass, even for people who are into their 70s. An increase in muscle size translates to an increase in strength. ...

The secret to chimp strength

... Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But ... of motor neuronsnerves cells that connect to muscle fibers and regulate muscle movement. More grey matter in humans means ...

Stem cell breakthrough: Monitoring the on switch that turns stem cells into muscle

... mutations or light signals to be turned on in muscle stem cells to monitor muscle regeneration in a living mammal. For humans, this ... switch, or drug, that allows people to grow new muscle cells to replace those that are damaged, worn ...

Symposium to look at genetic basis of exercise

... Dr. Hoffman will discuss Genetics and skeletal muscle adaptation to exercise, while Dr. Rankinen will ... of how the muscles work, and to understanding muscle diseases such as muscular dystrophy. Some of ... capillaries in the muscle, the more oxygen the muscle will have available during exercise. In one ...

CSHL researchers pinpoint structure-building role for 2 non-coding RNAs

... in a type of stem cell that differentiates into muscle fibers. They narrowed their focus to 14 confirmed ... The paraspeckles were larger in differentiated muscle cells than in their stem-cell precursors a sign ... depend on ncRNAs, whose levels are also higher in muscle cells. The team proved this point by inserting ...

New potential therapeutic target discovered for genetic disorder -- Barth syndrome

... syndrome is an X-linked genetic cardioskeletal muscle disease resulting in muscle weakness and fatigue in patients. The ... blood cells that fight bacterial infections), muscle weakness & fatigue (caused by cellular ...

Crafty Australian crayfish cheat

... To understand just how serious the cheating was, muscle physiologist Rob James from Coventry University, ... cheating by creating large chelae with little muscle inside, but the muscle they do put in there is actually weaker,' Wilson ...

UCLA stem cells scientists make electrically active motor neurons from iPS cells

... from the brain and spinal cord and regulate muscle contraction. The study demonstrates the ... and his team is to combine the motor neurons with muscle cells to see if they can stimulate a response. If they do, researchers should be able to see the muscle cells contract. ...

New research shows high-quality protein in eggs contributes to power, strength and energy

... protein in eggs makes a valuable contribution to muscle strength, provides a source of sustained energy ... such as thiamin, riboflavin, folate, B12 and B6. muscle strength: Dietary protein intake directly influences muscle mass, strength and function in people of all ....

While focusing on heart disease, researchers discover new tactic against fatal muscular dystrophy

... usually before the age of 6, destroying their muscle cells. The boys become progressively weaker ... of life. But the new study found that the muscle cells affected in both diseases have sprung the ... microscopic leak that ultimately weakens skeletal muscle in Duchenne and ...

Cell 'anchors' required to prevent muscular dystrophy

... rhythms also appears to be significant in helping muscle cells survive the forces of muscle contraction. The clue was a laboratory mouse that ... team turned its attention to ankB with regard to muscle cell organization. They knew that people with ...

Lamin A/C deficiency is 'unnerving'

... print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology . muscle fiber cells contain hundreds of nuclei. In normal ... of the neuromuscular junction and disrupted muscle fiber innervation, says author Alexandre Mjat. ... specifically affected striated and skeletal muscle because Nesprin-1 and SUN2 are highly expressed ...

Study links molecule to muscle maturation, muscle cancer

... in leukemia and lung cancer is also important in muscle repair and in a muscle cancer that strikes mainly children. The study shows that immature muscle cells require the molecule, called miR-29, to ...

Potential therapy for congenital muscular dystrophy

... helps cells stick together, may lead to enhanced muscle repair in muscular dystrophy. The related report ... inherited genetic diseases that cause progressive muscle weakness. In one type of muscular dystrophy, ... an extracellular protein found surrounding muscle fibers, ...

Reducing the damage of a heart attack

... role in a process that replaces dead heart muscle with stiffening scar tissue. The researchers are ... "The body tries to fix the injury to the heart muscle by depositing the fibers, but this causes a ... believe that the protein has a direct affect on muscle scarring and stiffening following myocardial ...

Single adult stem cell can self renew, repair tissue damage in live mammal

... restored lost function to mice with hind limb muscle tissue damage. The adult stem cells used in ... population of satellite cells in the skeletal muscle of mice. The skeletal adult muscle stem cells (MusSC), which live just under the ...

The Burnham buzz

... the gene expression profile in the diseased muscle cells compared to normal muscle cells. By inhibiting HDAC2 with small molecule ... interference, Dr. Lorenzo was able to return the muscle cells with the dystrophin mutation to normal ...