Tag: "platelet" at biology news

Polymers with copper show promise for implanted sensors

...where it plays another important role: it inhibits platelet function and prevents platelets from sticking to the surface of the blood vessels." Over the years, Meyerhoff and collaborators have developed nitric oxide-releasing polymers, then coated sensors with the polymers and implanted the sensors into the ...

Researchers report new pro-inflammatory role for anti-inflammatory enzyme

... plays a key role in regulation of blood pressure, platelet aggregation, the reactivity of immune cells and growth of vascular smooth muscle cells," explains Dr. Hobbs. "iNOS is not expressed under normal physiological conditions, but is up-regulated for host-defense purposes." Now, the researchers have vali...

UNC scientists discover new role for protein as fundamental inhibitor of cell movement

...as originally discovered at UNC in 1997 as a blood platelet protein that may play a role in clotting. Cell migration belongs to the most rudimentary of cellular functions that allow processes such as fetal development, new blood vessel formation and wound healing to occur in humans. Increased tumor cell migr...

Scientists closer to new cancer detection method

... as cancer protein. In this case, the target was platelet derived growth factor, or PDGF, a protein that regulates cell growth and division. Elevated PDGF levels have been linked to different forms of cancer, and have been found in patients with malignancies of the ovaries, kidneys, lung, pancreas and brain...

Thin tough skin, slow-growing gills protect larval Antarctic fish

...d at different depths, all larvae swam upward into platelet ice, located just below several meters of surface ice, when they hatched, seeking perhaps a safe area to hide from predators, Cziko said. The average freezing point of the larval fish fluids was about -1.3 degrees Celsius, according to testing with...

MiRNA fingerprint identified in platelet formation

...ecific set of miRNA genes are turned off in normal platelet development, but turned on in certain platelet-rel... examined miRNA activity in the earliest phases of platelet development. The researchers had previously uncovered substantial evidence linking certain pattern...

Green tea and the 'Asian Paradox'

... arteriosclerosis. EGCG also reduces the amount of platelet aggregation, regulates lipids, and promotes proliferation and migration of smooth muscle cells, which are all factors in reducing cardiovascular disease, he said. Sumpio said other reports show that EGCG prevents growth of certain tumors. Tea, acco...

Cell wall of pneumonia bacteria can cause brain and heart damage

...the blood vessel) by hooking onto a protein called platelet activating factor receptor (PAFr). Platelet activating factor (PAF) is an immune system signaling molecule that activates certain white blood cells. It normally binds to PAFr on the cell lining. The St. Jude team demonstrated that phosphorylcholine, ...

UCSD researchers create roadmap to integrin activation

...t regulates activation of the body's most abundant platelet receptor, an integrin called glycoprotein (GP) IIb...ocking the blood vessel. A signal from inside the platelet to the outside tells the GPIIb-IIIa integrin on the cell's surface to get sticky. Direct inhibito...

MIT material stops bleeding in seconds

... 90 seconds to start, and the researchers found no platelet aggregation, a telltale sign of clotting. Other MIT researchers who are co-authors on the paper are Gerald Schneider, professor of brain and cognitive sciences, and Shuguang Zhang, associate director of MIT's Center for Biomedical Engineering. Col...

Researchers seek to design first treatment for neuroAIDS

...A antagonists like the Alzheimer's drug Memantine, platelet activating factor (PAF) inhibitors, and in the case of the new grant, drugs that inhibit glycogen synthase kinase 3 beta (GSK-3b) and mixed lineage kinase (MLK). "The number of HIV patients that suffer brain damage is usually estimated at one in fiv...

Light wine intake is associated with longer life expectancy in men

...duction in blood clotting, due to an inhibition of platelet aggregation," Streppel said. Furthermore, red wine consumption may have an additional health benefit because the polyphenolic compounds contained in wine have been seen in animal to interfere with the formation, progression and rupture of atheroscl...

High-dose anticlotting drug cuts heart attack, death risk in half

...sts." Clopidogrel interferes with the action of platelet cells, which stimulate the formation of blood clots. Interventional cardiologists give patients a loading dose of this medication before PCI to protect against blood clotting. After the procedure, most patients take a lower daily dose (75 mg) for up ...

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