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Tag: "stimulates" at biology news

Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered

... spinal cords of normal mice with a substance that stimulates GRPR, the mice started scratching themselves as if they had a bad itch. "That's when we thought the gene might be involved in the itch sensation," Chen says. "So we began to systematically investigate this possibility." They studied scratching behav...

Hormone helps mice 'hibernate,' survive starvation

... PPAR-alpha in mice, the researchers found that it stimulates production of FGF21, a member of a hormone family ...els in diabetic and obese mice. FGF21, in turn, stimulates the use of stored fats as energy and causes torpor. In properly fed mice, FGF21 is not normally acti...

Clot-dissolving agent may be beneficial in treatment of severe frostbite

...armed again. Inflammation during thawing typically stimulates clotting that blocks small blood vessels, leading to cell death. Because tPA reverses this clotting, blood flow is restored before permanent damage is done. “Based on the dramatic improvements in perfusion [blood flow] and reduction in rates of am...

'Smart' mice teach scientists about learning process, brain disorders

...d NR2B, which is found in nerve-cell membranes and stimulates the cell to fire when a nerve-cell-signaling molecule, or neurotransmitter, binds to it. NR2B previously has been implicated in the early stages of learning. The new research showed that when Cdk5 is removed from the brain, the levels of NR2B sign...

UCLA study uncovers clues for why Graves' disease attacks the eyes

...n-like growth factor 1. Similar to insulin, IGF-1 stimulates cell growth while suppressing normal cell death. The team suspects that this mechanism prolongs the survival of older T-cells, causing a cascade of autoimmune problems that spur the body to attack its own tissue. "We think that the extra receptor...

Power-boosting signal in muscle declines with age

...whole-body energy balance, AMPK in skeletal muscle stimulates the oxidation of fatty acids and the production, o...e is probably a good thing because AMPK activation stimulates glucose uptake, increases fat oxidation, and promotes mitochondrial biogenesis," he said. In the ...

How appetite-stimulating brain cells work overtime during fasting

...und, animals lacking either UCP2 or an enzyme that stimulates thyroid hormone's production ate less than normal after a period of food deprivation. "This shows the key importance of UCP in the brain and its effect on neuronal activity," Diano said. "It's how neurons 'learn' that food is missing, and it keep...

Scientists find potential 'off-switch' for HIV virus

...tor" model, Weinberger said he hopes the discovery stimulates more research into potential gene-targeted therapies. "It would be wonderful to learn more about how these genetic circuits work so that we can enter a new age of drug design," he said. "Rather than just giving a static drug, we might one day des...

Cancer vaccines -- Taking a jab at cancer by stimulating the immune system

...ly kill targeted tumor cells, and one peptide that stimulates helper T cells. Altogether, it is an approach that not only excites the killer T cells into action, but also influences the helper T cells, which are instrumental in sustaining the killer T-cell response. The combined strategy has already show...

Researchers develop technique for bacteria crowd control

...ic pH level, so that an increase or decrease of pH stimulates the bacteria to avoid areas of non-comfortable pH and swim in the direction of pH gradient. The researchers used an electric current to create a controlled deviation of the pH levels from the bulk values. Since only living bacteria respond to the p...

Carnegie Mellon University research shows how sensory-deprived brain compensates

...animal. (Flicking a whisker on one side of a mouse stimulates a part of the brain on the animal's opposite side). Over the course of a week, Barth found that one whisker could not only stimulate a predicted cluster of neurons inside the brain; it could also activate nearby neurons. While some degree of plastici...

Molecular signature may identify cisplatin-sensitive breast tumors

...it the action of p63, they showed that the protein stimulates tumor growth by interfering with p73’s normal ability to induce cell death. Cisplatin was found to break up the binding of p63 to p73 and reactivate the cell-death process. "The most important finding was that, if the tumor cells did not express b...

Flavanols in cocoa may offer benefits to the brain

... raises hope that the brain blood flow response it stimulates can result in maintenance of healthy brain function and cognition, which is an issue that unfortunately plagues many older adults today,?Hollenberg said. This advancement in science related to brain health is especially exciting at a time when the na...

A healthier start to a pig's life

...ktin®, for a short, specific period before weaning stimulates the digestive tract to reach maturity faster. This helps it to change from the digestive and absorptive needs of milk, to those of an adult diet." The EUREKA study showed that giving the lectin to piglets at 11-12 days old enhanced successful weaning...

Mechanical 'artificial hearts' can remove need for heart transplant by returning heart to normal

...as the capacity to regenerate itself. It therefore stimulates the search for other strategies and more therapeutic targets in this expanding field of regenerative therapy," he added. LVADs are currently mainly used in those patients awaiting heart transplant, whose heart failure is very severe. The researche...

Gene key to taste bud development identified

...s the development of taste buds. The gene, SOX2, stimulates stem cells on the surface of the embryonic tongue and in the back of the mouth to transform into taste buds, according to the researchers. Stem cells are immature cells that can develop into several different cell types depending on what biochemical ...

Dopamine used to prompt nerve tissue to regrow

... next step is to verify findings that the material stimulates the reformation of synapses in addition to regrowth. "A successful nerve regeneration will require the nerve to synapse with the target organ," Wang said. "Since we've written this paper, we've also been able to get the nerves to form extensive s...

Growth factor stimulates rapid extension of key motor neurons in brain

... important for the survival of many types of cells stimulates rapid extension of corticospinal motor neurons ?critical brain cells that connect the cerebral cortex with the spinal cord and that die in motor neuron diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease). In the November 2006 i...

Harvard scientists identify compounds that stimulate stem cell growth in the brain

...llular and molecular mechanisms involved when LTB4 stimulates neuronal stem cells. According to the study, cells generated as the result of LTB4 exposure had high levels of LTB4 receptors, whereas the level of LTB4 receptors was considerably lower in similar cells not generated by LTB4 stimulation. The investig...

Gene therapy inhibits epilepsy in animals

... of neurotransmitters: the glutamate system, which stimulates neurons to fire, and the GABA system, which inhibits that brain activity. GABA's inhibitory role is considered particularly important in the dentate gyrus because the dentate gyrus acts as a gateway for brain activity into the hippocampus, an area ...

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