Promising results from a trial of a new stem-cell based therapy for a rare and debilitating skin condition have been published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology. The therapy, involving infusions of stem cells, was found to provide pain relief and to reduce the severity of this skin condition for which no cure currently exists. The clinical trial, led by King's College London in collaboration with Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), recruited 10 children with recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa (RDEB). RDEB is a painful skin disease in which very minor ...

MicroRNA can serve as a "decoder ring" for understanding complex biological processes, a team of New York University chemists has found. Their study, which appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, points to a new method for decrypting the biological functions of enzymes and identifying those that drive diseases. The research focuses on a particular class of enzymes that biosynthesize carbohydrates (i.e. glycans)--complex biological molecules controlling multiple aspects of cell biology--as well as on their attendant microRNA (miRNA), which are regulatory ...

MADISON - A century spent treating wildfires as emergencies to be stamped out may have cost Central Wisconsin a natural setting that was common and thriving before the state was settled. Pine barrens once stretched like a scarf around the state's neck, from the northeast down across Central Wisconsin and up again northwest to Lake Superior. As recently as the 1950s, University of Wisconsin-Madison surveys conducted by botany Professor John Curtis and graduate student James Habeck described the sandy, open spaces dotted with pin oak and jack pine and dashed with the lavender ...

MADISON - Portable electronics - typically made of non-renewable, non-biodegradable and potentially toxic materials - are discarded at an alarming rate in consumers' pursuit of the next best electronic gadget. In an effort to alleviate the environmental burden of electronic devices, a team of University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers has collaborated with researchers in the Madison-based U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) to develop a surprising solution: a semiconductor chip made almost entirely of wood. The research team, led by UW-Madison ...

Boulder, Colo., USA - Lithosphere articles posted 13 and 21 May cover several fascinating locations and geodynamic processes. One study investigates the kinematic evolution of the Himalayan orogen at a site in Nepal. Another paper addresses the "unroofing" of the Klamath Mountains in northern California/southern Oregon, USA. In the East African Rift area, researchers are examining how vegetation mediates slope erosion. Another group focusses on the largest salt lake of the Mediterranean region, Lake Tuz, Turkey. All recently posted Lithosphere articles are listed below. Abstracts ...

Stem cell transplant is essential in the care of many blood cancers, but leaves patients requiring in-home care for months after. Frequently the role of caregiver falls to family or other committed members of the patient's support network. Previous work shows dramatically increased stress in cancer caregivers, directly impacting the caregiver and indirectly impacting the cancer patient via reduced quality of care. A randomized control trial funded by the National Cancer Institute by members of the University of Colorado Cancer Center, published in the journal Bone Marrow ...

New York, NY - NYU Langone Medical Center and its Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center will have a high profile at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), with researchers presenting close to 30 abstracts accepted for oral, poster and publication presentations. Leading the way are eight oral abstract and poster presentations on melanoma for which an NYU Langone researcher is either a senior, lead or contributing author. While many of these studies are multi-institutional, five poster presentations are led by the Perlmutter ...

Despite early promise of benefits, soy doesn't help lung function Lifestyle and diet may also affect asthma control Study highlights importance of placebo-controlled studies CHICAGO --- Despite previous findings suggesting a link between soy intake and decreased asthma severity, a new study from Northwestern Medicine and the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Network shows soy supplements do not improve lung function for patients with asthma. The paper, published May 26 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), highlights the ...

While most surviving spouses had more depression symptoms following the death of their partner regardless of hospice use, researchers found a modest reduction in depressive symptoms among some surviving spouses of hospice users compared with nonhospice users, according to an article published online by JAMA Internal Medicine. The Institute of Medicine's report on improving the quality of care near the end of life highlights the need for supporting family caregivers. Core components of high-quality hospice care include counseling services for family members before and ...

Delayed clamping of the umbilical cord to help prevent iron deficiency in infancy was associated with improved scores in fine-motor and social skills in children at age 4, particularly in boys, although it was not associated with any effect on overall IQ or behavior compared with children whose cords were clamped seconds after delivery, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics. Iron deficiency is a global health issue among preschool children associated with impaired neurodevelopment that can affect cognitive, motor and behavioral abilities. Delaying ...

In an analysis that included more than 70,000 participants from 13 studies, subclinical hyperthyroidism was associated with an increased risk for hip and other fractures including spine, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA. Subclinical hyperthyroidism is a low serum thyroid-stimulating hormone concentration in a person without clinical symptoms and normal thyroid hormone concentrations on blood tests. Overt hyperthyroidism is an established risk factor for osteoporosis and fractures. Associations between subclinical thyroid dysfunction and fractures are unclear ...

Although some data have suggested that supplementation with soy isoflavone may be an effective treatment for patients with poor asthma control, a randomized trial that included nearly 400 children and adults found that use of the supplement did not result in improved lung function or clinical outcomes, including asthma symptoms and episodes of poor asthma control, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA. Soy isoflavones are plant (soybean) derived chemicals that have anti-oxidant effects. Increases in asthma prevalence and severity over the last several decades ...

Individually rare but collectively common intermediate-size copy number variations may be negatively associated with educational attainment, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA. Copy number variations (CNVs) are regions of the genome that differ in the number of segments of DNA. The Database of Genomic Variants catalogs approximately 2.4 million DNA CNVs. Some of them have been previously implicated as causal of a wide variety of traits and conditions. According to background information in the article large (defined as larger than 500 kb), recurrent CNVs ...

In a small study in Chile that included patients with gallbladder cancer, exposure to aflatoxin (a toxin produced by mold) was associated with an increased risk of gallbladder cancer, according to a study in the May 26 issue of JAMA. In Chile, gallbladder cancer is a leading cause of cancer death in women. Exposure to aflatoxin, a liver carcinogen, is associated with gallbladder cancer in primates. Aflatoxin contamination has been identified in Chile, including in aji rojo (red chili peppers). Aji rojo is associated with gallbladder cancer; however, the association of ...

(NEW YORK -- May 26, 2015) Spouses of patients receiving hospice for three or more days more frequently reported reduced depression symptoms, compared to surviving spouses of patients who did not receive hospice, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai published online today in JAMA Internal Medicine. This is the first national study to examine depressive symptoms as an outcome for spouses of people with all types of serious illnesses that used hospice care, which is designed to improve quality of life as opposed to offering ...

A typical characteristic of the brain of an Alzheimer sufferer is the presence of insoluble Tau protein aggregates. Scientists at VIB, KU Leuven and Janssen Pharmaceutica have demonstrated that the distribution of these aggregates through the brain is facilitated by synaptic connections between brain cells. This news is highly significant because the focus is increasingly on repairing synaptic connections as a therapeutic strategy in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. In fact, it is generally accepted that a loss of synaptic connections leads to a loss in cognitive ...

Biologists from the University of Leicester have discovered that one of nature's most important pollinators - the buff-tailed bumblebee - either ascends to the status of queen or remains a lowly worker bee based on which genes are 'turned on' during its lifespan. The paper, entitled 'Reproductive workers show queen-like gene expression in an intermediately eusocial insect, the buff-tailed bumble bee Bombus terrestris', which is published in the journal Molecular Ecology, suggests that the development of an individual bumblebee into its designated caste of male, worker ...

Sperm in the first fraction of ejaculate are more numerous, move more and present better quality DNA than those lagging behind. This is the conclusion of a study led by the Ginemed fertility clinic, which confirms that while the objective of the first fraction is to fertilise the egg, the second phase is so that no sperm from any other male has a chance to fertilise it. A study led by the Ginemed Assisted Human Reproduction Clinic analyses the advantages of using fractions of ejaculate separately in in-vitro fertilisation as a way to improve the sample of the semen. The ...

Strapped into a motion-enabled simulator and wearing 3D glasses, 36 adolescent volunteers recently experienced what it was like to "travel" through a field of virtual stars. The experiments provided new and convention-busting data about how sensory stimuli are processed by the brains of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The study, entitled "Self-motion perception in autism is compromised by visual noise but integrated optimally across multiple senses," was published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 4th, 2015. The authors of ...

The team has completed two genomics studies on the tropical disease, a condition that is estimated to cause up to 30 million illnesses and over a quarter of a million deaths globally each year. The first study, published in the journal Nature Genetics, suggests that the H58-strain, which is likely to have emerged in Asia approximately thirty years ago, is now rapidly spreading across Africa, where it has been introduced on several separate occasions. A key feature of this strain appears to be its ability to acquire resistance to commonly available antibiotics. Dr Melita ...

TORONTO, May 27, 2015--A good working relationship with police is essential for the smooth operation of a busy Emergency Department. Police are in and out of EDs regularly, supporting EMS, transporting patients and helping to provide a safe environment for hospital staff. Not surprisingly, differences of opinion arise from time to time over a health care worker's duty to protect patient privacy and the police need to conduct a criminal investigation. That's why it's essential to develop strategies to optimize communications between police and ED workers, according to ...

ATHENS, GA - Over the past century, many forests have shifted from open to closed canopies. The change in forest structure could be contributing to declines in pollinator species, especially native bees, according to a new study by U.S. Forest Service scientists. The study shows how common present-day forest conditions affect pollinators, especially bees. "Bees prefer open forests," says Jim Hanula, a research entomologist at the Southern Research Station (SRS) Insects, Diseases, and Invasive Plants research unit. "We found that total tree basal area was the best predictor ...

WASHINGTON, May 26, 2015 -- You might have heard that microwaving your food is dangerous. Maybe your health nut friend told you that eating frozen veggies is less healthful than eating fresh ones. Is a glass of red wine really good for your heart? This week, Reactions is here to sort out the "old wives' tales" from the facts, taking on a swath of food myths. Check out the videos here: http://bit.ly/ACSFoodMyths. Subscribe to the series at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions, and follow us on Twitter @ACSreactions to be the first to see our latest videos. INFORMATION: The ...

CLEMSON, S.C. -- If you've been to the doctor, you probably know what to do when you're handed a plastic cup and shown to the bathroom. Most patients hand over the sample and give little thought to what happens when it's shipped to the lab for analysis. Ken Marcus and his students are the exceptions. They have developed a new testing method that they believe will reduce costs, get faster results and lower the volume of urine needed for a sample. Marissa Pierson, a master's student, closes the lid on a centrifuge while working in a Clemson University lab with Ken Marcus. It's ...

This news release is available in German. Quantum physics is full of fascinating phenomena. Take, for instance, the cat from the famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrodinger. The cat can be dead and alive at once, since its life depends on the quantum mechanically determined state of a radioactively decaying atom which, in turn, releases toxic gas into the cat's cage. As long as one hasn't measured the state of the atom, one knows nothing about the poor cat's health either - atom and kitty are intimately "entangled" with each other. Equally striking, ...