MiR-122 micromanages liver function
2012-07-24
(Press-News.org) MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenously encoded RNAs that regulate the stability or translation of mRNA molecules, and emerging research suggests that they have diverse roles in normal physiology and disease. In this issue, two groups investigated the role of the predominant liver miRNA, miR-122. Ann-Ping Tsou and colleagues from National Yang-Ming University in Taiwan, and a team led by Kalpana Ghoshal, from Ohio State University generated mouse models of MiR-122 loss of function, and determined that the molecule was critically involved in modulating fat and cholesterol metabolism, and may also have a tumor suppressive function in hepatocytes. In the accompanying commentary, Jessica Wen and Joshua Friedman of the University of Pennsylvania discuss these findings, and suggest the possibility that miR-122 might be a promising therapeutic target in hepatocellular carcinoma.
INFORMATION:
TITLE:
MicroRNA-122 plays a critical role in liver homeostasis and hepatocarcinogenesis
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Ann-Ping Tsou
National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, TWN
Phone: (886)-2-28267155; Fax: (886)-2-28264092; E-mail: aptsou@ym.edu.tw
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63455?key=23da2ddccba2899a53ce
ACCOMPANYING ARTICLE
TITLE:
Essential metabolic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-tumorigenic functions of miR-122 in liver
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Kalpana Ghoshal
Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA
Phone: 6142926011; E-mail: kalpana.ghoshal@osumc.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63539?key=1d943d4c7b1a0ff69bdc
ACCOMPANYING COMMENTARY
TITLE:
miR-122 regulates hepatic lipid metabolism and tumor suppression
AUTHOR CONTACT:
Joshua Friedman
Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Phone: 267-426-7223; E-mail: friedmanjo@email.chop.edu
View this article at: http://www.jci.org/articles/view/63966?key=0e4a7918b518d2fd2d0c
END
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2012-07-24
An analysis of newly sequenced polar bear genomes is providing important clues about the species' evolution, suggesting that climate change and genetic exchange with brown bears helped create the polar bear as we know it today. The international study, led by the Penn State University and the University at Buffalo, found evidence that the size of the polar bear population fluctuated with key climatic events over the past million years, growing during periods of cooling and shrinking in warmer times.
The research also suggests that while polar bears evolved into a distinct ...
2012-07-24
With widespread hunger continuing to haunt developing nations, and obesity fast becoming a global epidemic, any number of efforts on the parts of governments, scientists, non-profit organizations and the business world have taken aim at these twin nutrition-related crises. But all of these efforts have failed to make a large dent in the problems, and now an unusual international collaboration of researchers is explaining why.
Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that while hunger and obesity are caused by a perfect storm ...
2012-07-24
The first study of a procedure to make three-dimensional "maps" of electrical signals in children's hearts could help cardiologists correct rapid heart rhythms in young patients, according to new research presented at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions.
Children with the condition atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia, or AVNRT, suffer from disruptions in the heart's electrical system that cause sudden rapid heart rates. Patients have been successfully treated with cardiac ablation , in which the abnormal tissue ...
2012-07-24
Damaged and aged heart tissue of older heart failure patients was rejuvenated by stem cells modified by scientists, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Basic Cardiovascular Sciences 2012 Scientific Sessions.
The study is simultaneously published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
The research could one day lead to new treatments for heart failure patients, researchers said.
"Since patients with heart failure are normally elderly, their cardiac stem cells aren't very healthy," said Sadia Mohsin, Ph.D., one of the ...
2012-07-24
Infants are able to detect how speech communicates unobservable intentions, researchers at New York University and McGill University have found in a study that sheds new light on how early in life we can rely on language to acquire knowledge about matters that go beyond first-hand experiences.
Their findings appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
"Much of what we know about the world does not come from our own experiences, so we have to obtain this information indirectly—from books, the news media, and conversation," explained Athena Vouloumanos, ...
2012-07-24
Using a newly developed analytical technique, a team led by scientists at USC was the first to identify long-hypothesized vitamin B deficient zones in the ocean.
"This is another twist to what limits life in the ocean," said Sergio Sañudo-Wilhelmy, professor of biological and earth sciences at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and lead author on a paper about the vitamin-depleted zones that will appear in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on July 23.
B vitamins are organic compounds dissolved in the ocean and are important for living ...
2012-07-24
Study results released today by the HIV Prevention Trials Network (HPTN) show disturbing rates of new HIV infections occurring among black gay and bisexual men in the U.S. (also known as men who have sex with men, or MSM), particularly young black MSM. The HPTN 061 study showed that the overall rate of new HIV infection among black MSM in this study was 2.8% per year, a rate that is nearly 50% higher than in white MSM in the U.S. Even more alarming, HPTN 061 found that young black MSM—those 30 years of age and younger—acquired HIV infection at a rate of 5.9% per year, ...
2012-07-24
The impact of deforestation on loss of biodiversity is undeniable. Madagascar, a biodiversity hotspot for its richness of endemic species, has been especially hard hit by deforestation and subsequent destruction of natural habitats, caused mainly, it is thought, by human pauperisation, economic activities and population growth. A recent study, by an international research group led by Lounès Chickhi, group leader at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (Portugal) and CNRS researcher (in Toulouse, France), questions the prevailing account that degradation of tropical ecosystems ...
2012-07-24
Increasing dietary intake of the antioxidant vitamins C, E, and selenium could help cut the risk of developing pancreatic cancer by up to two thirds, suggests research published online in the journal Gut.
If the association turns out to be causal, one in 12 of these cancers might be prevented, suggest the researchers, who are leading the Norfolk arm of the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer (EPIC) study.
Cancer of the pancreas kills more than a quarter of a million people every year around the world. And 7500 people are diagnosed with the disease every year ...
2012-07-24
Two out of three severely obese kids already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, suggests research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The prevalence and severity of childhood obesity has been rising worldwide, but little research has been carried out on the underlying health problems that children with severe weight problems have, say the authors.
They base their findings on data supplied by paediatricians to the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2005 and 2007.
During this period, doctors treating all new cases of severe obesity ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] MiR-122 micromanages liver function
