Categories
Cardiovascular
Diagnostics
Endocrinology
Health Insurance
Medical Devices
Mental Health
Nutrition
Oncology
Public Health
Sexual Health
Popular Articles

Study Suggests Memory Repression May Help The Traumatized
Geisinger Health System senior investigator and U.S. Army veteran Joseph Boscarino, Ph.D., is proud of his military service, yet he doesn"t like to talk much about his combat experiences.
generic viagra online
Green Tea Chemical Shows Potential As Low-Cost Intervention Against Sexual HIV Transmission, Study Says
A chemical found in green tea might be an effective tool against the sexual transmission of HIV, according to a study conducted by researchers at the University of Heidelberg in Germany and published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, AFP/Google.com reports. According to the study, green tea polyphenol -- called epigallocatechin-3-gallete, or EGCG -- neutralizes a protein in sperm that aids in the transmission of HIV during sex. The researchers noted that they "recently identified a peptide fraction in human semen that consistently enhanced HIV-1 infection." The study found that EGCG is able to neutralize the sperm protein, known as a semen-derived enhancer of virus infection, or SEVI. The researchers said that SEVI is "an important infectivity factor of HIV." According to the researchers, EGCG "appears to be a promising supplement to antiretroviral microbicides to reduce sexual transmission of HIV-1." The researchers said that because a majority of people living with HIV contract the disease through heterosexual transmission and that 96% of new cases are reported in developing and impoverished nations, the use of green tea in topical creams could be a "simple and affordable prevention method" (AFP/Google.com, 5/19).
News of the day
Secrets Revealed About How Disease-Causing DNA Mutations Occur
A team of Penn State scientists has shed light on the processes that lead to certain human DNA mutations that are implicated in hundreds of inherited diseases such as tuberous sclerosis and neurofibromatosis type 1. The results one day could influence the way couples who seek to have children receive genetic counseling. The team, led by Kateryna Makova, an associate professor of biology, also includes Erika Kvikstad, a graduate student in the Department of Biology, and Francesca Chiaromonte, an associate professor of statistics. Their findings will be published in the July 2009 issue of the journal Genome Research.
Public Health

Bridging The Mouse-Human Gap With Engineered Pig Stem Cells

The discovery that adult skin cells can be "reprogrammed" to behave like stem cells has been a major scientific boon, providing a way to tap the potential of embryonic stem cells without the associated ethical quandaries. Now, in a study appearing online in JBC, researchers have created a line of such reprogrammed stem cells from adult pigs. As pigs are large animals with a physiology very similar to humans, this work provides a valuable model to study the therapeutic potential of this new "induced pluripotent stem cell" (iPS) technology. iPS cells have already been developed from both mice and humans. Both systems will help researchers answer many biological and genetic questions about these cells, but still leave a gap before clinical applications can begin. These iPS cells cannot be tested on humans before thorough safety and efficacy trials in animal models, but the size, physiology and short lifespan of mice makes them less than ideal for these trials. Duanqing Pei and colleagues turned to a better pre-clinical model: pigs. These large animals share a remarkably similar biology to humans, as evidenced by their already extensive contributions to medicine, such as using pig insulin to treat diabetes or pig heart valves in transplant surgery. The research group modified the current iPS protocols to successfully generate a line of stem cells from a miniature Tibetan pig (whose smaller size would make breeding and maintenance easier). A biochemical analysis revealed these cells expressed the key proteins that would classify them as "stem cells" and had the ability to differentiate into many other types of cells. Importantly, these pig iPS cells more closely resembled human stem cells than other animals, confirming their value in pre-clinical studies. The researchers believe porcine iPS technology is an emerging and exciting field that should progress quickly and lead to many applications. Notes: "Generation of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell Lines from Tibetan Miniature Pig" by Miguel Angel Esteban, Jianyong Xu, Jiayin Yang, Meixiu Peng, Dajiang Qin, Wen Li, Zhuoxin Jiang, Jiekai Chen, Kang Deng, Mei Zhong, Jinglei Cai, Liangxue Lai and Duanqing Pei. Corresponding Author: Duanqing Pei, South China Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, China. Article Link: http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/abstract/M109.008938v2 Nick Zagorski American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology


Add your comment:
Name:
Site address: http://
Your message:
Enter today\\\\'s date, 2 digits
(spam protection):

© Copyright 2009