OPL

Cytoplasm affects the number of vertebrae in carp-goldfish clones

The March 2005 issue of Biology of Reproduction contains a report of some intriguing findings in cloned offspring created when nuclei from one genus of fish were transplanted to enucleated eggs of another genus of fish. The seven offspring, cloned from nuclei of common carp and egg cytoplasm of goldfish, were virtually identical to the nuclear donor species, Cyprinus carpio, in appearance...

Poplar trees redirect resources in response to simulated attack

Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have applied some of the same techniques used in medical imaging to track the distribution of nutrients in poplar trees in response to a simulated insect attack. The research provides new insights on a long-debated theory about how plants respond to environmental stress, and shows that radiotracer imaging can be a big he...

New insight into people who 'see' colors in letters and numbers

People with a form of synesthesia in which they see colors when viewing letters and numbers really do see colors, researchers, led by Edward M. Hubbard of the University of California San Diego, have found. What's more, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of their brains reveals that they show activation of color-perception areas. The researchers said their findings lend support t...

Antiretroviral therapy may prevent excess risk of some cancers in people with HIV

In people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) may prevent most excess cases of Kaposi sarcoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a new study in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Studies of people with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) have reported increased risks of several cancers, in...

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

About nineteen percent of people have a genetic variation that may increase susceptibility to osteoporosis, a new study reveals. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis demonstrated that in women the variant gene speeds up the breakdown of estrogen and is associated with low density in the bones of the hip. The study will be reported in the February issue of t...

Exercise training in ordinary people affects the activity of 500 genes

A new study from Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm shows that hundreds of genes in the thigh muscle are activated in regular cycle training. The study also reveals that great differences in training response may be due to the ability in some people to activate their genes much more forcefully. The study is published May 2 in FASEB Journal. It is common knowledge that it is very dangerous...

Brain activity related to processing faces is similar in people with, without autism

New brain imaging research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that when people with autism look at a face, activity in the brain area that responds is similar to that of people without autism. The finding is surprising, as it is widely known that autistic individuals tend to avoid looking directly at faces. The research also counters previous published reports tha...

Newly identified mechanism helps explain why people of African descent are more vulnerable to TB

A team of scientists has identified a cellular mechanism that may help explain the puzzle of why people of African descent are more susceptible to tuberculosis infection and why, once infected, they develop more severe states of the disease than whites. The team includes researchers from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH). The paper will appea...

Less antibiotic use in food animals leads to less drug resistance in people, study shows

Australia's policy of restricting antibiotic use in food-producing animals may be linked with lower levels of drug-resistant bacteria found in its citizens, according to an article in the May 15 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online. Campylobacter jejuni is a leading bacterial cause of foodborne illness in industrialized countries. Drug resistance can make Campylobac...

Nearly half of people who need cholesterol treatment don't get it

Even though treatment for cholesterol disorders can reduce the risk of heart and blood vessel disease by about 30 percent over five years, many at-risk people aren't getting adequate treatment, according to researchers from Wake Forest University School of Medicine and colleagues reporting in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. "Under-treatment of cholesterol disorders...

Obese people are more sensitive to pain, suggests study

Obese people may be more sensitive to pain than people who aren't obese, a new study suggests. Participants were given a mild electrical stimulation on their left ankle to measure their pain reflex. The stimulus was given before and after...

Slow-frozen people? Latest research supports possibility of cyropreservation

The latest research on water - still one of the least understood of all liquids despite a century of intensive study ?seems to support the possibility that cells, tissues and even the entire human body could be cyropreserved without formation of damaging ice crystals, according to University of Helsinki researcher Anatoli Bogdan, Ph.D. He conducted the study, scheduled for the July 6 issue...

Some people would give life or limb not to be fat

Nearly half of the people responding to an online survey about obesity said they would give up a year of their life rather than be fat, according to a study by the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale. The 4,000 respondents in varying numbers between 15% and 30% also said they would rather walk away from their marriage, give up the possibility of having children, be depressed, o...

Carnegie Mellon researchers discover key deficiencies in brains of people with autism

In a pair of groundbreaking studies, brain scientists at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have discovered that the anatomical differences that characterize the brains of people with autism are related to the way those brains process information. Previous studies have demonstrated a lower degree of synchronization among activated brain areas in people with autis...

Joslin discovers signs of residual islet cell function in people with long-term type 1 diabetes

Scientists at Joslin Diabetes Center have discovered that a surprisingly high percentage of people with type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent) who have had the disease for 50 years or longer (The Joslin Medalists) may still have residual functioning, insulin-producing islet cells and/or islet cell antibodies. The findings will be presented June 12 at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 66th Annu...

Herbal medicine silymarin may help sugar-control in people with type II diabetes

Diabetes is a growing health problem. Giving antioxidants is recognised as one way of helping people with diabetes to control their blood sugar levels. The herbal medicine extracted from seeds of the Milk Thistle, Silybum marianum (silymarin) is known to have antioxidant properties and research published this week in Phytotherapy Research shows that this extract can help people significan...

'Mindless autopilot' drives people to underestimate food decisions

People estimate that, on average, they make about 15 food- and beverage-related decisions each day. But the truth is, they make more than 15 times that -- more than 200 such decisions. Commenting on his new Cornell study, Brian Wansink, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing and of Applied Economics at Cornell, observed, "So many food decisions are made on mindless autopilot." The proble...

Stanford discovery may help predict when toxoplasma can be deadly

Toxoplasma is arguably the most successful animal parasite on earth: It infects hundreds of species of warm-blooded animals, most notably half of humanity. Its unusual ability to overcome the numerous challenges of infecting and reproducing inside such a wide range of creatures has long intrigued scientists, and now researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified t...

The first tree genome is published: Poplar holds promise as renewable bioenergy resource

Wood from a common tree may one day factor prominently in meeting transportation fuel needs, according to scientists whose research on the fast-growing poplar tree is featured on the cover of tomorrow's edition of the journal Science. The article, highlighting the analysis of the first complete DNA sequence of a tree, the black cottonwood or Populus trichocarpa, lays the groundwork that m...

Gene that makes people 'early to bed and early to rise' demystified

The recent discovery that a mutant "clock" gene made some people "early to bed and early to rise," a condition known as familial advanced sleep phase syndrome (FASPS), offered one of the first glimpses into the genetic basis of sleep in humans. Now, researchers report in the Jan. 12, 2007 issue of the journal Cell, published by Cell Press, new evidence that helps to explain just how their bodies'...

Eating with our eyes: Why people eat less at unbused tables

People watching the Super Bowl who saw how much they had already eaten -- in this case, leftover chicken-wing bones -- ate 27 percent less than people who had no such environmental cues, finds a new Cornell study. The difference between the two groups -- those eating at a table where leftover bones accumulated compared with those whose leftovers were removed -- was greater for men than for...

Stanford-led study closes in on genes that may predispose some people to severe depression

Some people appear to be genetically predisposed to developing severe depression, but researchers have yet to pin down the genes responsible. Now, a specific region rife with promise has been located on one chromosome by a consortium of researchers working under Douglas Levinson, MD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine. "Thi...

NIDA study identifies genes that might help some people abstain from smoking

Scientists supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, have for the first time identified genes that might increase a person’s ability to abstain from smoking. The breakthrough research was conducted by Dr. George Uhl at NIDA’s Intramural Research Program and a team led by Dr. Jed Rose at the Center for Nicotine and Smoking Cessation Resear...

Discovery of 'master switch' for the communication process between chloroplast and nuclei of plants

Scientists have puzzled for years in understanding how plants pass signals of stress due to lack of water or salinity from chloroplast to nucleus. They know that chloroplasts ?the cellular organelles that give plants their green color ?have at least three different signals that can indicate a plant is under stress. Given the challenges the environment will be facing over the coming decades...

Toxoplasmosis infection trick revealed by scientists

Toxoplasmosis is a parasitic disease, primarily carried by cats. It is transmitted to humans by eating undercooked meat or through contact with cat faeces. It is particularly dangerous for pregnant women, whose foetuses can be infected via the placenta, and those with a weakened immune system, such as people infected with HIV. In severe cases, toxoplasmosis can cause damage to the brain and eyes,...

Smallpox outbreak: How long would it take for vaccines to protect people? Would it work?

In the event of a smallpox outbreak in the United States, how long would it take for a vaccinSLU scientist leads national studye to start protecting Americans by stimulating an immune response? General routine vaccinations for smallpox were stopped in the United States in...

Marine phytoplankton changes form to protect itself from different predators

In a paper published June 11 in the online version of Proceedings...

Study finds mix of disease processes at work in brains of most people with dementia

Few older people die with brains untouched by a pathological process, however, an individual’s likelihood of having clinical signs of dementia increases with the number of different disease processes present in the brain, according to a new study. The research was funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and conducted at the Rush Alzheimer’s D...

Rising skin cancer rates are more likely to affect wealthy people, says 12-year review

Researchers who looked at official cancer statistics for nearly 23,000 patients over a 12-year period, reported a 20...