Metabolic in Biological News

Researchers engineer metabolic pathway in mice to prevent diet-induced obesity

In recent years, obesity has taken on epidemic proportions in developed nations, contributing significantly to major medical problems, early death and rising health care costs. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, at least a quarter of all American adults and more tha...

Drinking 100 percent fruit juice is associated with lower risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome

New Orleans (April 22, 2009) If you enjoy a glass of 100% juice as part of your daily routine, chances are you also have fewer risk factors for several chronic diseases when compared to your non juice-drinking peers. New research presented today at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2009 meeting highl...

Research suggests vegetable juice may help people with metabolic syndrome lose weight

NEW ORLEANS, April 19, 2009 Drinking at least one glass of low sodium vegetable juice daily may help overweight people with metabolic syndrome achieve better weight loss results. A study, conducted at the Baylor College of Medicine and presented at this week's Experimental Biology Meeting, found...

Athletes not spared from health risks of metabolic syndrome

COLUMBUS, Ohio College-age football players who gain weight to add power to their blocks and tackles might also be setting themselves up for diabetes and heart disease later in life, a new study suggests. Nearly half of a sample of collegiate offensive and defensive linemen who underwent a bat...

Adiponectin is a metabolic link between obesity and bone mineral density

Researchers at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, have discovered that adiponectin, a protein secreted from adipocytes, is a metabolic link that can explain, in part, the known positive relationship between obesity and both bone mineral density and reduced susceptibil...

For insulin sensitive overweight patients, 1 session of exercise improves metabolic health

HILTON HEAD, SCOne out of every three Americans is obese. These individuals are at greater risk for additional diseases, since obesity leads to other health problems, such as diabetes. Obesity-related complications are associated with an abnormal fat metabolism in the muscle. As a result, a...

Cortisol and fatty liver: Researchers find cause of severe metabolic disorders

A healthy body stores fat in the form of so-called triglycerides in specialized fatty tissue as an energy reserve. Under certain conditions the delicate balance of the lipid metabolism gets out of control and fat is accumulated in the liver, leading to the dreaded fatty liver. This increases the r...

New evidence on the robustness of metabolic networks

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Biological systems are constantly evolving in ways that increase their fitness for survival amidst environmental fluctuations and internal errors. Now, in a study of cell metabolism, a Northwestern University research team has found new evidence that evolution has produced cell ...

Bisphenol A linked to metabolic syndrome in human tissue

CINCINNATINew research from the University of Cincinnati (UC) implicates the primary chemical used to produce hard plasticsbisphenol A (BPA)as a risk factor for metabolic syndrome and its consequences. In a laboratory study, using fresh human fat tissues, the UC team found that BPA suppresses a...

NYU dental professor discovers biological clock linking tooth growth to other metabolic processes

This clock, or biological rhythm, controls many metabolic functions and is based on the circadian rhythm, which is a roughly 24-hour cycle that is important in determining sleeping and feeding patterns, cell regeneration, and other biological processes in mammals. The newly discovered rhythm, l...

Powerful integration of lipid metabolic profiling with gene expression analysis

A recently published research article in the Journal of Proteome Research, authored by researchers from the Nestl Reserarch Center, Genomatix Software GmbH, Rosetta Inpharmatics LLC, CXR Biosciences Ltd, the Cancer Research UK Molecular Pharmacology Unit demonstrates the synergisms and enhanced an...

Study of protein folds offers insight into metabolic evolution

Researchers at the University of Illinois have constructed the first global family tree of metabolic protein architecture. Their approach offers a new window on the evolutionary history of metabolism. The study appears this week in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

Dragonfly's metabolic disease provides clues about human obesity

Parasite-infected dragonflies suffer the same metabolic disorders that have led to an epidemic of obesity and type-2 diabetes in humans, reveal the findings of research conducted at Penn State University that are due to be published in the 5 December 2006 issue of the Proceedings of the National Ac...

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

Liver transplants cured the metabolic symptoms of 11 patients with a rare but devastating genetic condition known as Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD), according to a study by researchers from Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh and the Clinic for Special Children. All patients from the study (rangi...

Removing DNA repair gene causes metabolic syndrome

Removing a gene involved in repairing damaged DNA causes mice to develop the metabolic syndrome, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered. Scientists at OHSU, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the University of Alabama found that generating mice that lack the...

Darkness unveils vital metabolic fuel switch between sugar and fat

Constant darkness throws a molecular switch in mammals that shifts the body's fuel consumption from glucose to fat and induces a state of torpor in mice, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston reports in the Jan. 19 edition of Nature. While their ...

Diverse tropical forests defy metabolic ecology models

As global change accelerates, quantifying the role of forests in the carbon cycle becomes ever more urgent. Modelers seek simple predictors of forest biomass and carbon flux. Over the last decade, the theory of metabolic ecology generated testable explanations, derived from physical and biochemical...

Hot-spring bacteria flip a metabolic switch

Scientists at the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology have found that photosynthetic bacteria living in scalding Yellowstone hot springs have two radically different metabolic identities. As the sun goes down, these cells quit their day job of photosynthesis and unexpectedly begin to...

Advances in lung cancer research announced at conference

....org/content.asp?lnavid=39 . "TH-302 is a new, novel, small molecule that is activated when cells are under conditions that lack oxygen, which is a metabolic condition characteristic of cancer cells," Dr. Weiss said. "We are excited to continue investigations with TH-302 and about the potential benefit that...

Joint research into an enzyme that causes genetic diseases

...the "natural" state). Pyruvate carboxylase is a metabolic enzyme that plays a fundamental role in the metabo...example, when mutations in the gene arise) diverse metabolic diseases of genetic origin are triggered, amongst ...ho-motor retardation. At the same time, being at a metabolic crossroads, pyruvate carboxylase is potentially a ...

Iron isotopes as a tool in oceanography

...a unique tracer of sediment respiration by dissimilatory iron-reducing bacteria. Dissimilatory iron reduction is thought to be one of the earliest metabolic pathways on Earth , thus sedimentary iron isotopes may also be useful in reconstructing past iron cycling in the ancient ocean. Pore-fluid iron iso...

Research shows rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled

... Researchers also looked at the impact of severe obesity and found that a third of children in the severely obese category were classified as having metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors for heart attack, stroke and diabetes. These risk factors include higher-than normal blood pressure, cholesterol and...

Health benefits of physical activity more pronounced in women

...ri Monda and colleagues at North Carolina and Baylor. They found that over a 12 year period, all individuals who increased their exercise by about 180 metabolic units per week (equivalent to an additional hour of mild or 30 minutes of moderate activity per week) displayed decreased levels of triglycerides and ...

Stress signals link pre-existing sickness with susceptibility to bacterial infection

...ibit a wide range of symptoms including diabetes, blindness, deafness, stroke-like episodes, epilepsy, ataxia, muscle weakness and kidney disease. The metabolic abnormalities that cause these effects also induce a stress signal intended to help the body overcome its energy deficit. The stress-signal induces t...

Warmer environment means shorter lives for cold-blooded animals

...e relationship between temperature and lifespan that Munch and Salinas found through data analysis was strikingly similar to the relationship that the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE) predicts. The MTE is a modeling framework that has been used to explain the way in which life history, population dynamics, ge...

Common allergy drug reduces obesity and diabetes in mice

...nd the term "immunology" anywhere. This is because metabolic conditions and immunologic conditions are, with a ...te blood cells, also acts as a liaison between the metabolic and immune systemsin this case, controlling inflam...nsulin. In contrast, type 2 diabetes is a strictly metabolic condition in which cells grow increasingly deaf to...

UTMB study identifies women at risk of gaining excessive weight with injectable birth control

...y gainers averaged weight gain of 24 pounds over three years. "DMPA-related weight gain is linked to increased abdominal fat, a known component of metabolic syndrome, which raises the risk of obesity-related conditions such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and diabetes," said corresponding author Dr. Abbe...

Munich researchers discover new target for tailored antibiotics

...earchers at TUM, the Technische Universitaet Muenchen, have shed light on a metabolic step that appears in many aggressive microorganisms -- such as tuberculosis.... Over the years, the team discovered most of the reaction steps of the new metabolic pathway. Yet the structure of the terminal step catalyzed by the IspH enzym...

'Show me the money!' MDA greenlights grants

...sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, and spinal muscular atrophy. It also served as the basis for a lifesaving therapy developed by Genzyme for a metabolic muscle disease called Pompe disease. At Columbia University, Schon has been awarded a three-year $400,000 grant to continue research into diseas...

A matter of density, not quantity

... the possibility that small groups of cells could also initiate quorum sensing if they are confined to a sufficiently small volume. The quorum-sensing metabolic processes are relevant to a number of cellular functions, including the growth of small numbers of cells at the early stages of biofilm formation or t...

Exploring standards to advance microbial genomics

...lack of standards for so many critical procedures in the field, procedures ranging from simple data exchange to gene finding, function prediction, and metabolic pathway description. Echoing other researchers, most notably DOE JGI's Patrick Chain and Miriam Land during the recent "Sequencing, Finishing, Analysi...

Forsyth scientists suggest linkages between obesity and oral bacterial infection

...between obesity and oral bacteria are likely complex. The observed relationship may be circumstantial as being related to diet or opportunistic due to metabolic changes. In the next phase of this research, Dr. Goodson plans to further examine this relationship by initially conducting a controlled cohort study ...

Scientists track chemical changes in cells as they endure extreme conditions

...e molecular signatures of a cell's biochemical and metabolic activity, such as spikes in levels of free radical...tched as the surviving cells unleashed a series of metabolic changes that enabled them to endure in the presenc...ltaneously in the same bacteria, and watched their metabolic response to stress and extreme conditions," says H...

Rampant helper syndrome

...unctions on their own. They depend on small helper molecules. Such molecules are stored inside special pockets in the proteins and carry out essential metabolic functions. The living organism itself produces many of these helpers. Others like vitamins must be obtained from food. Severe vitamin deficiencies a...

Genetically engineered mice yield clues to 'knocking out' cancer

...d), fatty liver disease and hyperinsulinemia (excess levels of circulating insulin in the blood). In humans, these disorders are collectively known as metabolic syndrome, a condition that affects more than 40 million persons in the United States. In collaboration with Dr. Lloyd's group, a second research te...

The sound of light: Innovative technology shatters the barriers of modern light microscopy

...g pigments using the fluorescence protein technology for which a Nobel Prize was awarded in 2008 and clinically approved fluorescent agents observing metabolic and molecular processes in all kinds of living organisms, from fish to mice and humans, will be possible. The fruits of pharmaceutical research can al...

Kelvin Lee winner of Biochemical Engineering Journal Young Investigator Award

...s Foundation Teacher-Scholar Award. He has also been recognized by Technology Review as a Top Innovator in Business and Technology, by the journal metabolic Engineering with the Jay Bailey Best Paper award, and by the designation of Distinguished Professor by the New York State Office of Science, Technolog...

Mouse model provides clues to human language development

...Helmholtz scientists analyzed the Foxp2 mice by screening for more than 300 parameters, including the ability to see and hear, bone density, important metabolic functions and a number of neurological functions. The mice carrying the humanized Foxp2 gene showed no physiological abnormalities. However, behaviora...

UC Davis grant zeroes in on novel asthma diagnosis and treatment

...d principal investigator Bruce Hammock, a distinguished professor and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Metabolomics involves the study of metabolic products of cells, which scientists use to distinguish a diseased state from a healthy state. "Our study also will evaluate if there is a scienti...

Powe Award supports research on how enzymes enable the pathogenicity of 2 human disease organisms

...phores to obtain iron from the host. The iron-siderophore complex is then taken by the microbes, increasing the concentration of iron to satisfy their metabolic needs and enable infection. The synthesis of siderophores in M. tuberculosis and A. fumigatus requires special enzymes (hydroxylase) that are dependen...