cells

A gene's first 'kiss' sets off that affair known as puberty

... chemical messages. Inside the hypothalamus, nerve cells release GnRH in a 'round-the-clock,' pulsatile fashion. With each secretion, the pituitary gland is stimulated to secrete its own messengers, lutenizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), directly into the circulation. In turn, thes...

DNA Molecules Used To Assemble Nanoparticles

...e complexes can be specifically targeted to cancer cells and are small enough to enter a diseased cell, eit...ndrimers hit their targets, were admitted into the cells and gave off their signaling light. The self-assembled dendrimer clusters were shown to be well form...

Bioartificial kidney under study at MCG

...ificial kidney containing billions of donor kidney cells will help intensive care patients with kidney fail... device for kidney failure adds billions of kidney cells that can perform many of these important kidney functions. Human proximal tubule cells are collected...

Viral DNA sequence a possible trigger for breast cancer

...ast tumor virus (called MMTV) can transform breast cells into cancer cells, according to a study by Katz et...l Medicine. The ability of this motif to transform cells single-handedly suggests that viral infection may be an important and previously unrecognized trigge...

Wisconsin scientists grow critical nerve cells

...error, scientists have coaxed human embryonic stem cells to become spinal motor neurons, critical nervous s..., also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. With healthy cells grown in the lab, scientists could, in theory, replace dying motor neurons to restore function and a...

Man and mouse share genome structures

... learn how the genome is translated to make living cells and organisms, and how we can use that information...ital and Harvard Medical School. "Every one of our cells has the same genome, yet is completely different. Muscle cells are different from neurons. They are ...

Jump-starting T Cells In Skin Cancer

...e vaccines work by increasing the number of immune cells called killer T cells that can attack the tumor. In an unexpected finding, however, they discovered that that these cells ...

Scientists ID molecular 'switch' in liver that triggers harmful effects of saturated and trans fats

...by a biochemical switch, or co-activator, in liver cells called PGC-1beta. Until now, scientists lacked a ... Spiegelman, who carries out basic research on fat cells and metabolic pathways in diabetes and cancer at Dana-Farber. "It offers the opportunity to try to u...

A new mechanism of regulating RNA degradation

...ans who want to take control of gene expression in cells to create therapies to treat disease. While cells have a variety of ways to control gene expression, the trick for players in this game is to recogniz...

FDA Approves Human Hookworm Vaccine for Phase I Safety Trials

...ans who want to take control of gene expression in cells to create therapies to treat disease. While cells have a variety of ways to control gene expression, the trick for players in this game is to recogniz...

Deficient DNA Repair Capacity Associated With Increased Risk Of Breast Cancer

Deficiencies in the ability of cells to repair damaged DNA are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a new study in the January 19 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. DNA repair is the system of defenses designed to protect the integrity ...

Spleen may be source of versatile stem cells

...ed that the spleen might be a source of adult stem cells that could regenerate the insulin-producing islets...me team now report that these potential adult stem cells produce aprotein previously believed to be present only during the embryonicdevelopment of mammals.T...

Researchers discover way to make cells in the eye sensitive to light

...chers have discovered a way to makelight sensitive cells in the eye by switching on a single gene.According...rs believethat by activating the melanopsin, these cells may gain the ability tosense and respond to light.Professor Mark Hankins, from Imperial College Lond...

Quantum Dots Research Leads to New Knowledge about Protein Binding in Plants

...ntial use of Quantum Dots in live imaging of plant cells andprovides valuable understanding of the mechanism of interaction betweenthe pollen tube and female tissue during reproduction.“Integrating materials science, chemistry and plant biology tounderstand how and where specific proteins act on a pollen t...

Source of molecular triggers in cutaneous T cell lymphoma identified

...rs that stimulate Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma (CTCL) cells to clonally expand into large populations of malig...adult malignancy of T lymphocytes, the white blood cells of the immune system. Finding CTCL triggering factors has been a major goal of Richard L. Edelson, M...

University of Manchester makes made-to-measure skin and bones a reality using inkjet printers

...ild a fragment which will fit exactly. Wecan place cells in any designed position in order to grow tissue o...ssible.The reason for this is the way in which the cells are inserted into thestructures.Before being fed into the printer, the cells are suspended in anutri...

Enzyme, lost in most mammals, is shown to protect against UV-induced skin cancer

...lar potential to cause lasting damage to mammalian cells becausephotolyases ?a class of enzymes capable of efficiently repairing theselesions ?have apparently been lost from placental mammals over thecourse of evolution.Thus, most mammals, including humans, can only repair these lesionsthrough a much less ...

It's not all genetic: Common epigenetic problem doubles cancer risk in mice

...tein is sufficient to change the normal balance of cells within the lining of the colon, thereby doubling t...h factor 2 (IGF2) develop more so-called precursor cells within the lining of the colon than normal mice. When these mice also carried a colon-cancer-causing...

Columbia research lifts major hurdle to gene therapy for cancer

...ne therapy for cancer: its tendency to kill normal cells in theprocess of eradicating cancer cells.In a new...esignedvirus. The virus eradicated prostate cancer cells in the lab and inanimals while leaving normal cells unscathed. Genetherapy based on the new techniq...

Dysentery uses 'sword and shield' to cause infection

...stem. They found that shigella was able to infect cells by using a secretion system to inject proteins int... inject proteins into human cells. This causes the cells to become inflamed, resulting in symptoms of dysentery, such as bloody diarrhoea. At the same time, ...

Topical treatment shown to inhibit HIV and herpes simplex virus infection

...prevent HIV and HSV infection of susceptible human cells in culture. Levels of inflammatory cytokines were also measured as markers of acute inflammation. Analyses showed that CVL obtained after the application of PRO 2000 gel reduced both HIV and HSV infectivity by at least 1000-fold compared to CVL obta...

Priming embryonic stem cells to fulfill their promise

...have invented a process to help turn embryonicstem cells into the types of specialized cells being sought as possibletreatments for dozens of human diseases and health conditions. SangeetaBhati...

Growth in the sea comes down to a struggle for iron

...ic. Even with additional iron, large phytoplankton cells in the east do not appear to grow as readily. Since prevailing winds tend to blow iron rich dust off the Asian continent into the Pacific, it may be that phytoplankton closer to the source of that dust may be primed to respond differently. Wells and...

New, automated tool successfully classifies and relates proteins in unprecedented way

...roteins.These proteins were produced inside living cells using a technologycalled CD tagging, which was developed by Jonathan Jarvik and PeterBerget, both associate professors of biological sciences at CarnegieMellon. The computational analyses were carried out together with XiangChen, a graduate student i...

New binding target for oncogenic viral protein

...s some of the most important proteins that protect cells against malignant transformation, including tumor suppressor proteins p53 and pRb. In the Journal of Biological Chemistry paper, Dr. Welcker and Dr. Bruce Clurman report that T antigen also binds to another tumor suppressor, Fbw7. This protein is pa...

Lack of enzyme turns fat cells into fat burners

...ylase 2or ACC2, appears to turn the adipose or fat cells of mice into fatburners, explaining in part why th...e NationalAcademy of Sciences. "Westudied the fat cells in these mice bred to lack ACC2," said Dr. SalihWakil, chair of the BCM department of biochemistry a...

Poor prenatal nutrition permanently damages function of insulin-producing cells in the pancreas

...from the mother to the baby, the baby's pancreatic cells will be programmed abnormally," said principal inv...pancreas doesn't make enough insulin or the body's cells develop a resistance to its effect. Without insulin, glucose cannot get into cells to provide energy...

Emory Study Tests Bone Marrow Stem Cells to Improve Circulation in Legs

...edicine are conducting a clinical trial using stem cells generatedwithin the bone marrow to grow new blood ..., to prod the bone marrow torelease a type of stem cells called endothelial progenitor cells, whichare used by the body to form new blood vessels or to repai...

Fox Chase Cancer Center scientists identify immune-system mutation

...d immunity) and also for helping other white blood cells (B cells, derived from bone marrow) generate antib...gainst foreign agents that enter the body. Other T cells are known as killer cells because they attack foreign invaders more directly. "The maturation of T ...

Controversial drug shown to act on brain protein to cut alcohol use

...culture, and evidence of toxicity to certain nerve cells in rodentstudies have discouraged careful studies of its clinical potentialagainst drug and alcohol addiction. The FDA has not approved use ofIbogaine in the U.S.Scientists at UCSF's Ernest Gallo Clinic and Research Center have nowshown definitively ...

Neuronal 'traffic jam' marks early Alzheimer's disease

...r transport system and thus the viability of brain cells otherwise lost in Alzheimer's. The findings also c...lzheimer's pathology by using human embryonic stem cells to differentiate into neurons in culture. Their goal is to alter those neurons genetically by introd...

Current human embryonic stem cell lines contaminated UCSD/Salk team finds

Currently available lines of human embryonicstem cells have been contaminated with a non-human molecule t...lycolylneuraminic acid (Neu5Gc), even though human cells aregenetically unable to make it. In a related paper published November29, 2004 by the Journal of Bi...

Mouse brain cells rapidly recover after Alzheimer's plaques are cleared

Brain cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer'sdisease have surpri...ther scientists hadregarded plaque damage to nerve cells as a fait accompli--somethingthat the plaques only needed to inflict on nerve cells once. Accordingt...

Genome of deadly amoeba shows surprising complexity, evidence of lateral gene transfer

...ba lacked many of the visible traits of eukaryotic cells (such as endoplasmic reticulum, golgi apparatus an...ethods to kill bacteria as it uses to damage human cells and cause disease, the level of certain bacteria in the colon can be an important determinant of the...

Key molecule in plant photo-protection identified

Brain cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer'sdisease have surpri...ther scientists hadregarded plaque damage to nerve cells as a fait accompli--somethingthat the plaques only needed to inflict on nerve cells once. Accordingt...

Newly-discovered class of genes determines ?and restricts ?stem cell fate

Research on adult stem cells found in the skin hints at a new class of genes, a...the skin and hair ?is also expressed in adult stem cells in the skin. "Our findings told us that a recapitulation of an embryonic program is occurring in re...

Plants, animals share molecular growth mechanisms

...hole plant and also the shape and size of types of cells in the plant." Results of the study are published...or actin filament formation, we can engineer plant cells to grow in different ways or alter how cells respond to external stimuli so they can defend themselv...

Recent breakthroughs in common adult leukemia highlighted in New England Journal of Medicine

...nsidered a uniform disease of immature white blood cells that didn't die, with the slow rise in leukemia ce...d cells. Scientists have since discovered that CLL cells do indeed turn over, with the accumulation over time a result of the difference in the birth and dea...

Plants respond similarly to signals from friends, enemies

...w for real-time, three-dimensional study in living cells over time, the NC State researchers discovered tha...mation of either nodules housing bacteria or giant cells from which the nematodes feed. The scientists also discovered that, like rhizobia and contrary to p...

Scientists Replicate Hepatitis C Virus in Laboratory

...ked HCV construct was then placed into human liver cells in a cell culture medium. The NIDDK scientists fo...of HCV proteins and HCV RNA within the human liver cells in the culture. Electron microscopy showed evidence of high levels of viral particles resembling ful...

Novel antiviral technology inhibits RSV infection in mice

...sue ofthe journal Nature Medicine.RSV infects lung cells and can be life-threatening in very youngchildren,...degradable particles that stick tomucous-producing cells lining the lungs. The RNA produced isspecifically designed to suppress the protein NS1. Without NS1,...

Scientists detect probable genetic cause of some Parkinson's disease cases

...sorder that is caused by the degeneration of nerve cells in theportion of the brain that controls movement....se eachyear. The disease occurs when certain nerve cells die or becomeimpaired and can no longer produce dopamine, a brain signaling chemical(neurotransmitte...

Computers to be used to find blueprint for new influenza drug

...milar to part of the protective coating around the cells in our throats that the flu virus first attacks wh... virus which attack cells, and atoms of the throat cells that are attacked. By using advanced software to model the way these atoms behave in highly complex ...

Transplantation Of Monkey Embryonic Stem Cells Reverses Parkinson Disease In Primates

...s (DA neurons) generated from monkey embryonicstem cells and transplanted into areas of the brain where the...t, were recently applied to primate embryonic stem cells andresulted in the generation of large numbers of DA neurons. In theircurrent JCI study, Jun Takahas...

New Technique for Tracking Gene Regulators

...d off the genes that establish the very identityof cells ?be they brain cells, liver, or blood ?as well as ...rminewhich genes are at work in different types of cells under differentconditions,?he said.Previous, individual experiments have identified about 100 places...

Bound for destruction: Ubiquitination protects against improper Notch signaling

...an) have identified the means by whichunstimulated cells protect the Notch receptor from activation.Recent ...presents a neat solution to theproblem confronting cells of how to prevent molecular loose cannonsfrom fouling their precisely ordered workplans....

Combination therapy boosts effectiveness of telomere-directed cancer cell death

...ell can divide.In contrast to normal cells, cancer cells divide continuously anduncontrollably. Scientists know that cancer cells produce an enzyme,called telomerase, which prevents telomeres from getting too short socells can kee...

Inflammatory molecules released by pollen trigger allergies

...leased from pollen. These molecules bind to immune cells and cause them to launch a typical allergy-promoti...lock the production of a soluble protein by immune cells that normally inhibits allergic reactions. They went on to identify the compound in the pollen extra...

GATA: a graphic alignment tool for comparative sequence analysis

...ell can divide.In contrast to normal cells, cancer cells divide continuously anduncontrollably. Scientists know that cancer cells produce an enzyme,called telomerase, which prevents telomeres from getting too short socells can kee...

“Nano-scissors?laser shows precise surgical capability

...nervecells that carry nerve impulses away from the cells to muscles or toother cells.“This tool opens up a ...stems. This laserallows researchers to study nerve cells at their most basicevolutionary form, opening the door to other experiments on genetic andmolecular ...

U-M scientist to talk about tissue engineering at AAAS

...ts have a pretty good handle on how to teach human cells to do tricks in a laboratory---things like getting soft cells from the mouth's lining to form bone. But in the real world, accomplishing such feats is more compl...

Genome-wide mouse study yields link to human leukemia

...a pre-leukemic stage marked by rapidly expanding T cells and natural killer cells, both major components of...cancer by identifying and getting rid of defective cells before they have a chance to mature and divide. When tumor suppressor genes lose that ability ?as th...

Breakthrough Microarray-based Technology for the Study of Cancer

... to changes in the number of gene copiespresent in cells are important events in the genesis and progression ofcancer," said Michael Bittner of the Translational Genomics ResearchInstitute. "Agilent has now taken array-CGH experiments into a newrealm of resolution, sensitivity, and reproducibility that all...

Iron Deficiency Sparks Dramatic Changes In Gene Expression

...spinach, seeds andother foods.Their study in yeast cells demonstrated that iron-starved cellspreserve the l...ized symptom is anemia, in which too few red blood cells areproduced, and the body is deprived of oxygen needed for energymetabolism. Iron deficiency causes ...

Novel Enzyme Shows Potential As An Anti-HIV Target

...1’s catalytic center is removed. Experiments using cells taken from transgenic mice lacking SIRT1 demonstra...effects in a dose-dependent manner, while treating cells with the small molecule HR73, a derivative of a molecule that inhibits the yeast version of the SIRT...

NYU Study Reveals How Brain's Immune System Fights Viral Encephalitis

...cking the virus' release, which could infect other cells in the brain. "There is no magic bullet in fighting viral infections in neurons," said NYU Biology Professor Carol Shoshkes Reiss, the study's senior author. "However, these findings show the redundancy of the immune system--when one response fails ...

Study finds more than one-third of human genome regulated by RNA

...searchers are shutting off genes by deliveringinto cells artificial microRNA-like molecules called siRNAs. ... Learning moreabout how microRNAs operate in human cells should help scientists tounderstand how best to exploit siRNAs for treating disease....

Emory Eye Center Implants Its First Retinal Chips In Patients With Retinitis Pigmentosa

... affect the photoreceptor layer or "light sensing" cells of the retina. Night blindness develops, usually in childhood, followed by loss of peripheral visual field, progressing over many years to tunnel vision and finally blindness. At Emory Eye Center retina specialists Thomas M. Aaberg, Sr. and Jiong Ya...

NYU researchers simulate molecular biological clock

...searchers are shutting off genes by deliveringinto cells artificial microRNA-like molecules called siRNAs. ... Learning moreabout how microRNAs operate in human cells should help scientists tounderstand how best to exploit siRNAs for treating disease....

Mitochondrial DNA mutations play significant role in prostate cancer

...gene in 260 prostate cancer tissue samplesor blood cells from patients with confirmed cancer who had underg.... They theninjected these modified prostate cancer cells into mice to assess theirtumor-forming ability. The prostate cancer cells with the mutant mtDNAsgene...