nutritional

Iron Deficiency Sparks Dramatic Changes In Gene Expression

... Iron deficiency is the most prevalent and severe nutritional disorderworld wide, affecting more than 2 billion people. The most widelyrecognized symptom is anemia, in which too few red blood cells areproduced, and the body is deprived of oxygen needed for energymetabolism. Iron deficiency causes wide-ranging s...

UNC launches study of liver injury caused by drugs

... by prescription and over-the-counter medications, nutritional supplements, alternative medicines and herbals. Funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, DILIN will be the first large-scale investigation of severe liver injury associated with drugs. Other DILIN centers alon...

NSAID drug protects against intestinal tumors in mice, despite poor diet and gene losses

... illustrate the interplay between genes and common nutritional and medicinal agents in development of cancer in the intestines. The drug they tested, sulindac, was a highly effective chemoprevention agent, the researchers say, because it worked to induce expression of the p21 gene, which they found put a firm s...

Excess liver gene protects against high-fat diet

...etic alteration with opposite effects in different nutritional environments." The researchers examined lipid metabolism and atherosclerosis in mice with an approximately 3-fold increase in the concentration of LXRa receptors in their livers. The mice also lacked a second gene that made them particularly prone t...

Attacks of King George III's madness linked to key metabolism molecule

...bohydrate food. A biological explanation for these nutritional effects has been lacking. The Dana-Farber scienti... the cover of the August 26 issue of Cell that the nutritional component of porphyria involves a key master metabolic molecule, PGC-1 alpha, in cells of the liver....

Study shows how retinoic acid enters a cell's nucleus

...istance to the treatment. Noa Noy, a professor of nutritional sciences at Cornell, and Richard Sessler, the paper's lead author and a graduate student in Noy's lab, wanted to learn how RA is transported into the cell's nucleus. The chemical structure of RA makes it hydrophobic, meaning it is barely soluble in w...

Investigating 'brain shrinkage' in alcoholics

...hlights were: - A number of toxic, metabolic, and nutritional factors interact in a complex way to cause brain damage in those individuals who abuse or are dependent on alcohol. "The exact ways in which alcohol damages the brain are uncertain," said Harper. "It might be that alcohol, or a metabolic byproduct o...

Crisis in African fish supplies looms, experts warn Africa leaders

...in processing and marketing could improve food and nutritional security for both producers (more income) and cons...s will have an impact on food availability and the nutritional status of the population. A system to monitor these impacts will help fisheries managers and other d...

Leptin-signaling Protein Maintains Normal Body Weight And Energy Balance In Mice

...in processing and marketing could improve food and nutritional security for both producers (more income) and cons...s will have an impact on food availability and the nutritional status of the population. A system to monitor these impacts will help fisheries managers and other d...

A slight difference and significant similarities

...ntestinal flora and are therefore a very desirable nutritional component. Potatoes containing inulin were developed at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Plant Physiology in Potsdam as early as 2000. The properties of these new fructan potatoes were investigated from 2001 to 2004 by the research group Forschu...

Progress on HIV/AIDS significant but insufficient

...y eliminating the cost of schooling and broadening nutritional programmes in schools, and strengthening prevention of mother-to-child transmission. In the round table concerning human rights with an emphasis on gender, it was stressed that human rights violations and inequality between men and women continued t...

Research team receives $7.5 million to study cassava

...ill work with other experts to increase the root's nutritional value, its shelf life once harvested (cassava roots deteriorate in about two days unless they are properly processed after harvesting) and its resistance to geminivirus, a particularly devastating plant virus that can destroy up to 60 percent of a ca...

Prenatal exposure to famine increases risk of schizophrenia

... previous research suggesting a link between fetal nutritional deficiency and schizophrenia, according to a study...of which are yet firmly established, include fetal nutritional deficiency. A previous study found that there was twice the risk of schizophrenia among children con...

Anti-cancer Compound In Beer Gaining Interest

... increase the levels of xanthohumol or use it as a nutritional supplement - that might be different. It clearly has some interesting cancer chemopreventive properties, and the only way people are getting any of it right now is through beer consumption." Xanthohumol was actually first discovered in 1913, isolate...

University of Arizona plant scientists to unravel maize genome

...tment of plant sciences who works on enhancing the nutritional value of corn. "The cereals are very closely relat...re. Other improvements aim at increasing yield and nutritional value and optimizing the properties crucial for grain products such as flour, noodles and pasta. "O...

Penn study finds direct role for glial cells in brain cross-talk

...t just the 'kitchen cells' of the brain, providing nutritional support, but instead also help the neurons talk to each other." Haydon and colleagues published their results in last week's issue of Science. The central nervous system, which includes the brain and spinal cord, is composed of specialized cells cal...

The nude mouse tale: Omega-3 fats save the life of a terminal cancer patient

...uch as chemotherapy or surgical excision. It was a nutritional intervention, drastically increasing the patient's...r treatment. "We have good evidence for employing nutritional interventions to improve cancer treatment and patient well-being," he said. Pardini wants to be ab...

Anyway you slice it, tomatoes cut through drought with new gene

... is "boosting nutrients in plants tomake them more nutritional for children," said the study now may be tried on other crops. Gaxiola said he already has additional studies under way to demonstrate how this technology applies to other commercial crops. ...

Study finds that nutritionally enhanced rice reduces iron deficiency

...on and other micronutrients, they will improve the nutritional status of people who consume them. This has drama... the overall nutrition of the world's poor through nutritional supplements. In these areas, commercially fortified foods also have difficulty making it into the mo...

Study by Einstein researchers could lead to a novel strategy for treating obesity

...The brain's hypothalamus keeps track of the body's nutritional status by monitoring the blood levels of several different hormones and nutrients. Taking this information into account, the hypothalamus regulates our energy intake and metabolism. In a study published last year in Science, Dr. Rossetti and his co...

Ethiopian development raises birth rate

...anning provisions were absent. They looked at the nutritional status of women and children (in terms of weight a...ildren and the birth rate increased. However, the nutritional status of young children declined. Overall, neither women's health nor nutritional status appeare...

Strawberries by design

...he long term, be extremely useful in enhancing the nutritional value of these plants as well as the amount of health-enhancing antioxidants that they may contain. Jerzy Nowak, professor and head of the Department of Horticulture at Virginia Tech, commented: "Over the years, scientists have worked hard to find a...

Research updates 65-year-old genetic discovery

.... For humans, this taste sensitivity may influence nutritional choices and ultimately their health, as well as behaviors, such as smoking. For chimpanzees, it provides a way to live safely in their environments by avoiding toxic plants and other harmful compounds. Research conducted more 65 years ago by a team ...

U-M researchers take new approach to defeating Gram-negative bugs

... genomic knockouts did not survive without special nutritional supplements. Later, they were surprised to see that with different growth conditions, the cell began to grow again but without the hair-like structure. The cells survived---but they looked a lot like Gram-positive cells, without all the sugars on th...

Not just the birds

...e and fox-infested islands. "By disconnecting the nutritional link from sea to land, the introduction of foxes to the Aleutians has reduced or eliminated the significance of the perimeter-to-area relationship that is so clearly evident on fox-free islands," say the authors. Previous studies have focused on tro...

Pennsylvania researchers find liver transplants provide metabolic cure for rare genetic disease

...years, early diagnosis of MSUD followed by careful nutritional therapy have improved the health and developmental...l complications. It is a reasonable alternative to nutritional therapy, particularly for patients with poor access to specialized medical care. However, liver tran...

UCR researchers design chip that can improve citrus varieties

...ness, flavor components, pest and disease control, nutritional characteristics, and reproductive development. "The citrus array helps us quickly examine a certain trait in citrus," said Mikeal Roose , a professor of genetics in the Department of Botany and Plant Sciences at UCR and a leader of the three-year r...

Chemical in many air fresheners may reduce lung function

...tion between 1988-1994 to determine the health and nutritional status of the U.S. population. Data from 953 adults 20-59 years old who had both VOC blood measures and pulmonary function measures are included in the study published in the August issue of Environmental Health Perspectives. Four pulmonary funct...

DNA: Bacteria's survival ration

...fied eight genes in E. coli that are necessary for nutritional competence. Without any one of these genes, the ba...t may be a widespread phenomenon." The concept of nutritional competence could have applications to medical research, as the DNA from dead cells in the human body...

Super-sized cassava plants may help fight hunger in Africa

...tor of an ongoing project focused on improving the nutritional content of cassava. In this work Sayre leads a team of national and international scientists focused on increasing the vitamin, mineral and protein content of the plant. ...

Five surprising facts about starvation that could change the international agenda

... economic growth without proportional gains in the nutritional status of poorer people in their society." Finally, Gross and Webb state that the development agenda must tackle child wasting in order to make a lasting impact on human well- being. "The problem of wasting needs to be addressed wherever it is iden...

Completed genome set to transform the cow

...h and disease management of cattle and enhance the nutritional value of beef and dairy products has received a major boost with the release this week of the most complete sequence of the cow genome ever assembled. Developed by an international consortium of research organisations, including CSIRO and AgResearc...

Basic work on E. coli identifies two new keys to regulation of bacterial gene expression

...ribosomal RNA, which means that other factors like nutritional and environmental signals ultimately regulate the expression of those genes. "In this case, regulation is achieved not because the promoter makes a special contact, but because it can't establish contact at all," says Gourse. "This is an example of ...

Natural vitamin E tocotrienol reaches blood at protective levels

...ans fat. In the first study of this form of the nutritional supplement in humans, Ohio State researchers determined that a moderate dose of tocotrienol reached concentrations in human blood plasma that would be more than adequate to protect against neurological damage that follows stroke. These findings were ...

Researcher gives hard thoughts on soft inheritance

...roversy. Richards cited "a whole new world called nutritional epigenomics," where researchers are trying to infl...tween generations, but they do show that the early nutritional environment in the mice and early behavioral environment in the rat studies can change the DNA packa...

A sweet solution for Alzheimer's disease?

...re not the type of inositol sold commercially as a nutritional supplement. That type--myo-inositol--has been shown previously to be ineffective at breaking up amyloid aggregates, he said. In the brain of a person with Alzheimer's disease, small proteins called amyloid â aggregate into plaques, and a protein cal...

Biologists find regions of rice domestication

...esearchers can consider ways to improve the crop's nutritional value and disease resistance, which in turn can help impoverished populations in Asia and elsewhere that rely heavily on the crop. Londo expects to find even more evidence for differing geographic domestication. He said that by using the database t...

Gene linked to rare disease activates fat breakdown

...lycerides. In vertebrates including humans, excess nutritional carbohydrates and fat are efficiently converted into triglycerides and deposited in fat tissue. The team, led by Rudolf Zechner of the University of Graz in Austria, now reports that CGI-58 boosts the activity of so-called adipose triglyceride lipa...

Cutting calories slightly can reduce aging damage

...ssor of medicine in the division of geriatrics and nutritional sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, said the study is of major importance because it shows a mild degree of caloric restriction - just enough to prevent weight gain with advancing age - can have beneficial effects again...

'Mindless autopilot' drives people to underestimate food decisions

...en Wansink and Jeffery Sobal, Cornell professor or nutritional sciences, asked 139 university staff and students to estimate how many decisions they make about food each day, the average response was 15. However, when the volunteers then answered specific questions about when, what, how much and where they ate a...

Study suggests evolutionary link between diet, brain size in orangutans

...ts and that they generally are at greater risk for nutritional stress because of pregnancy and lactation and their smaller homes ranges. "The general scenario supported by these results, then, is that an increase in the frequency of uncontrollable periods of low energy intake in one part of the orangutan's geo...

For super-obese patients, duodenal switch beats gastric bypass

... performed laparoscopically; greater potential for nutritional deficiencies; and need for life-long medical follo...e patients," he added. "We are currently comparing nutritional outcomes and improvement in obesity-related medical problems, including type 2 diabetes, high blood ...

Wheat gene may boost foods' nutrient content

...t in the grain, potentially offering a solution to nutritional deficiencies affecting hundreds of millions of chi...humans, therefore, even small increases in wheat's nutritional value may help decrease deficiencies in protein and key micronutrients," said Professor Jorge Dubcov...

Researchers examine why food tastes bad to chemotherapy recipients

...nd Lee compare the sensory thresholds, recommended nutritional levels, and adverse health effect levels of iron a...eption of taste and odor is very complex, and like nutritional needs, varies depending on age, gender, race, health status, prior exposure and experience. Two gr...

Bitter taste identifies poisons in foods

... Lead author Mari Sandell comments on additional nutritional and practical implications of the study, "Taste ha...aste is necessary to develop modern tools for both nutritional counseling and food development." ...

Special chip provides better picture of salmon health

...heir stocks through methods such as changing their nutritional intake." So far the scientists have identified the genes and metabolic pathways which influence the most commercially important traits for the production of salmon. These are; the supply of contaminant-free highly unsaturated oils, including omega...

Replacing insulin is top-ranked breakthrough foreseen for health in developing world

...us disease, maternal and perinatal conditions, and nutritional deficiencies combined. The authors say low and middle income countries as a group report 80% of all chronic disease deaths, over 95% of deaths due to infectious disease, and almost 90% of deaths due to injury and trauma. Even though developing co...

Why do insects like to eat some plants more than others?

...ally attribute the differences to variation in the nutritional quality or defective chemistry of plant tissues. However, the researchers found that cactus-feeding insects chose host plants based on how the plants allocated resources between growth and reproduction. "The crux of our findings is actually quite ...

'Empty nester' parent birds use recruitment calls to extend offspring care

...to associate with one another beyond this point of nutritional independence. Because juveniles are poor foragers,...rds may prolong offspring care beyond the onset of nutritional independence, and it sheds new light on the sophistication of parental care among birds. ...

How mammals fuel milk production may have implications for cancer

...l and highly conserved in mammals, as provision of nutritional support is essential for the survival of offspring,?said Lewis Chodosh, lead author of the study at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. “Given its remarkable importance, it has been a relatively understudied field.? “Our studies demo...

New gene linked to bipolar disorder

...strategies, for example with drugs or even through nutritional intervention." Around one in every 200 people in the UK develops bipolar and other related mood disorders. Signs of depression include losing weight, feeling totally negative about oneself, feel hopeless about the future and sometimes ending up in...

Are genomic technologies the answer to world hunger?

...hat biotechnology has the potential to improve the nutritional content of food crops and, crucially, resistance to insects and disease. This could lead to improved yields of food crops for both human and animal consumption. Researchers are also working on 'molecular farming' ?production of pharmaceutical produc...

Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron

...uole. "Iron deficiency is the most common human nutritional disorder in the world today, afflicting more than 3 billion people worldwide," said Mary Lou Guerinot, a biologist at Dartmouth College in N.H. and the principal investigator on the study. "Most of these people rely on plants for their dietary iron, ...

Plant studies reveal how, where seeds store iron

...uole. "Iron deficiency is the most common human nutritional disorder in the world today, afflicting more than 3 billion people worldwide," said Mary Lou Guerinot, a biologist at Dartmouth College in N.H. and the principal investigator on the study. "Most of these people rely on plants for their dietary iron, ...

Fungal factories may save hemlock forests

...iculture and forestry. And the whey serves as a nutritional resource, making each droplet a cozy biological factory for a fungal colony, pumping spores out into the forest long after the spraying teams have gone home. If their laboratory tests continue to go well, the researchers anticipate starting field ...

Immunization rates hit record high in poor countries

...iculture and forestry. And the whey serves as a nutritional resource, making each droplet a cozy biological factory for a fungal colony, pumping spores out into the forest long after the spraying teams have gone home. If their laboratory tests continue to go well, the researchers anticipate starting field ...

NIH announces phase III clinical trial of creatine for Parkinson's disease

...ching a large-scale clinical trial to learn if the nutritional supplement creatine can slow the progression of Pa...ioration in function. Creatine is marketed as a nutritional supplement. Studies have suggested that it can improve the function of mitochondria, which produce ...

Cocoa 'vitamin' health benefits could outshine penicillin

...vitamins would provide significant opportunity for nutritional companies to expand their range of products. Flava...to have a bitter taste. So there is huge scope for nutritional companies to develop epicatechin supplements or capsules Epicatechin is also found in teas, wine...

It's OK for men with high blood pressure to have a drink or two, new study finds

...titute, and others, discusses measurement error in nutritional epidemiology studies. Because of the current limitations of procedures and reference instruments, the editorial writers say, "we cannot assume that corrected estimates of diet-disease associations in any single study are definitive." ...

Pitt study notes decline in male births in the US and Japan

...sticides father fewer baby boys. We also know that nutritional factors, physical health and chemical exposures of pregnant women affect their ability to have children and the health of their offspring. We suspect that some combination of these factors, along with older age of parents, may account for decreasing ...