spine

Potential treatments for neurofibromatosis

...ment and deformation of bones and curvature of the spine (scoliosis), and in many instances, learning disorders. Occasionally, tumors may develop in the brain, on cranial nerves, or on the spinal cord. However, a rare form of the disease occurs in infants and young children, with tumors growing on major n...

Increased risk of osteoporosis associated with gene that one in five people have

...he research team measured bone density in both the spine and the upper femur. The bone mass of the spine proved not to be affected by genetic variation in CYP1A1. "Our study suggests that this genetic vari...

Mice brains shrink during winter, impairing some learning and memory

...ionally smaller hippocampus, as well as changes in spine density there that have been associated with spatially related memory and learning performance. "We predicted that when you reduce the size of the hippocampus, it would have an impact on learning, and that's what we found," Nelson said. The shrinki...

Purdue scientists may have found key to halting spinal cord damage

...een sure which chemicals are responsible." When a spine is damaged, the change in its ability to function ...ned pattern. In response to the initial shock, the spine immediately becomes completely nonfunctional but then starts to recover quickly. Over the course of ...

Tiny RNA molecules fine-tune the brain's synapses

...napses form. When neurons were exposed to miR-134, spine volume significantly decreased, weakening the syna... overcome and Limk1 became active again, enhancing spine growth. Greenberg believes that miR-134 ?and other microRNAs his lab is studying ?may play a role i...

How nerve cells stay in shape

...binding protein Staufen2 is required for dendritic spine morphogenesis. Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 172 (2), 17 January 2006 ...

Adult stem cells are touchy-feely, need environmental clues

...y in the lab, before implanting them in the heart, spine or whatever damaged environment you want to place them." ...

Long-term changes in experience cause neurons to sprout new long-lasting connections

...of experience-dependent, persistent-type dendritic spine growth has broader implications for understanding ...he changes in the brain's wiring diagram caused by spine growth. ...

Neurons grown from embryonic stem cells restore function in paralyzed rats

... sciatic nerve (the sciatic nerve extends from the spine down the back of the hind leg). GDNF causes axons to grow toward it. Three months after the transplants, the investigators examined the rats for signs that the stem cell-derived neurons had survived and integrated with the nervous system. The rat...

New roles for growth factors: Enticing nerve cells to muscles

...or neurons to connect to the muscles that line our spine and neck," says senior author Samuel Pfaff, Ph.D.,... Earlier studies suggested that muscles lining the spine sent out chemical cues as a siren song for specific motor neurons known as MMCm cells. But when atte...

Radiologists attempt to solve mystery of Tut's demise

...broken piece from the first vertebra of the king's spine may have been fractured and dislodged when Carter, Derry, Hamdy and their team tried to remove and free the gold mask, which was tightly glued and quite adherent to the body, by using some metal instruments that broke the thin, fragile piece of bone ...

Cigarette smoking impedes tendon-to-bone healing

...es and also inhibits bone fusion processes -- many spine surgeons, for example, won't do certain operations on people who smoke because of the risk of failure. But little is known about the effects of cigarettes on tendon and ligament healing. There also are some gaps in medical knowledge about the prev...

Human stem cells delay start of Lou Gehrig's disease in rats

...eady being planned -- along the full length of the spine to affect upper body nerves and muscles as well mi...ot yet showing symptoms were injected in the lower spine with human neural stem cells - cells that can in theory become any type found in the nervous system....

Ferns provide model for tiny motors powered by evaporation

...that is used for the device. It resembles a curved spine with equally spaced ribs fanning outward from the ...tips move toward each other, straightening out the spine of the device. In this way, the closed device opens wide---it moves. They plan to add electrical co...

Pourquié lab identifies genes involved in formation of vertebral precursors

...ic genes that shed light on the molecular basis of spine formation in the embryo. The paper was publishe...urquié's lab has long studied the formation of the spine and the role of an internal mechanism -- the clock oscillator -- that regulates the formation somite...

A new target for painkillers

...rsal root ganglia ?a group of nerve cells near the spine and involved in pain transmission. The new study showed alpha9alpha10 nicotinic receptors provide a previously unknown route to pain relief. McIntosh says a patent is pending on this new mechanism. One form of severe nerve pain is known as scia...

Radiation after surgery doubles survival time for some lung cancer patients

...h nodes ?located between the chest, breastbone and spine ?who receive radiation after surgery and chemotherapy live twice as long as patients who do not receive radiation after surgery, according to a study presented at the plenary session November 6, 2006, at the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology...

New fMRI technology making brain tumor surgery safer

... for clinical care, education, and research of the spine and brain, and UC Radiology, which purchased the BrainLAB planning station hardware. Both physician practices are closely affiliated with The Neuroscience Institute, an international center of excellence located at University Hospital and UC. Neur...

Cancer researchers add spice to research against rare neuromuscular disease

..., which affects the motor neurons that go from the spine to certain muscles, causing muscle weakness and wasting throughout body. Symptoms typically include difficulty speaking and swallowing, and weakness in the arms and legs. Patients are often diagnosed in their 30s and 40s, and while most live a normal...

Elderly spinal cord injuries increase five-fold in 30 years, Jefferson neurosurgeons find

...an age 65 by the year 2040, and will likely impact spine surgeons and spinal cord rehabilitation centers as these patients become a larger proportion of the spinal cord injury (SCI) population. The findings were just presented by Jefferson neurological surgeons at a meeting in Phoenix, Ariz. of the Joint S...

NIH researchers discover protein that appears to regulate bone mass loss, the cause of osteoporosis

...nsity, fragile bones and an increased risk of hip, spine and wrist fractures. The basic mechanism behind osteoporosis involves an imbalance between bone mineral formation and loss, but the detailed biological processes that lead to this imbalance are not completely understood. Now researchers at the Nation...

Human stem cell treatment restores motor function in paralyzed rats

Rats paralyzed due to loss of blood flow to the spine returned to near normal ambulatory function six weeks after receiving grafts of human spinal stem cells (hSSCs), researchers from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine report. The study, led by Martin Marsala, M.D., UC San...