Tonsillectomy may result in fewer severe sore throats and could benefit some adult patients, according to a randomized trial published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Recurrent severe sore throats result in lost work or school days and frequent use of antibiotics. Researchers from Finland conducted a randomized open trial to determine whether tonsillectomy reduced episodes of severe sore throats (pharyngitis). The trial involved 86 patients, 46 of whom had the procedure and 40 who did not. The primary outcome was the difference in the number of patients ...

Organ donation in Ontario is significantly less common at large general hospitals than at hospitals with clinical programs for transplant recipients, which points to missed opportunities to optimize organ donation, according to a study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). To understand whether organ donation rates differed between hospitals that treat transplant recipients and those that do not, researchers looked at all patients (adults and children) who died from catastrophic brain injury in Ontario between 1994 and 2011. After excluding small hospitals ...

DNA, siRNA and miRNA can reprogram cancer cells – that is, if these nucleic acids could cross through the cell membrane. A University of Colorado Cancer Center study published today in the journal Therapeutic Delivery shows that cholesterol "rafts" can shepherd genetic payloads into cancer cells. "There are many promising therapeutic applications for nucleic acids, but because they can't diffuse across cell membranes on their own, delivery to cancer cells has been a major challenge. Our method is a promising way to get these drugs inside cancer cells where they can do ...

Women who have suffered a still birth or have medical conditions including varicose veins, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) or heart disease are at greater risk of developing dangerous blood clots after giving birth, a study has revealed. The research, led by academics at The University of Nottingham, found that being obese, suffering bleeding during pregnancy or labour and having a premature birth or delivery via caesarean section also increased the risk of a venous thromboembolism (VTE). Their findings, published in the American Society of Hematology journal Blood, ...

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder, affecting about one-third of older adults, and currently there is no cure. A study published by Cell Press April 2nd in the Biophysical Journal reveals how the nanoscale biomechanical properties of cartilage at joints change at the earliest stages of osteoarthritis, making the tissue more prone to damage during fast physical activities. The findings could improve early detection of the disease as well as tissue engineering strategies to repair damaged cartilage in patients. "Our techniques enable detection of the earliest ...

VIDEO: This video transitions to where it goes inside the eyeball and scans the retina. The white/yellow circle is the optic nerve and the yellowish egg yolk colored deposits are the... Click here for more information. Macular degeneration is the leading cause of blindness in older Americans. Much-needed prevention and treatment strategies for this pervasive disease may soon be on the way, thanks to findings published by Cell Press on April 2nd in the journal Cell Metabolism. ...

New findings in mitochondrial biology thoroughly change the idea scientists had for 20 years on the role and importance of the protein MTERF1. For the first time, Max Planck researcher Mügen Terzioglu and her colleagues in Germany and Sweden investigated in vivo what was up to now only explored in cell culture. Using the mouse as a model organism, she made a surprising discovery: MTERF1 does after all not play the key role in mitochondrial transcription and translation that was hitherto ascribed to it. Dr Terzioglu's findings will change the way we look at the regulation ...

Jose Ramon Sarasua and Aitor Larrañaga, researchers in the materials engineering department of the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country, have been studying new materials or implants that are of interest in medicine and in helping to mend bones, in particular. They have in fact measured the effect that the bioglass has on the thermal degradation of polymers currently used in medicine. The results have been published in the journal Polymer Degradation and Stability. Bones are capable of regenerating themselves if they suffer slight damage. But if the damage is above ...

VIDEO: This is video of an examination of the retina of a patient with age-related macular degeneration. The light-colored flecks are cholesterol-rich deposits that have built up under the retina.... Click here for more information. A new study raises the intriguing possibility that drugs prescribed to lower cholesterol may be effective against macular degeneration, a blinding eye disease. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 25, 2013) – A team of researchers at The New York Stem Cell Foundation Research Institute led by Scott Noggle, PhD, Director of the NYSCF Laboratory and the NYSCF – Charles Evans Senior Research Fellow for Alzheimer's Disease, and Michael W. Nestor, PhD, a NYSCF Postdoctoral Research Fellow, has developed a technique to produce three-dimensional cultures of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells called embryoid bodies, amenable to live cell imaging and to electrical activity measurement. As reported in their Stem Cell Research study, these cell aggregates ...

A study by the universities of Manchester and Liverpool observing monkeys has found that those in the middle hierarchy suffer the most social stress. Their work suggests that the source of this stress is social conflict and may help explain studies in humans that have found that middle managers suffer the most stress at work. Katie Edwards from Liverpool's Institute of Integrative Biology spent nearly 600 hours watching female Barbary macaques at Trentham Monkey Forest in Staffordshire. Her research involved monitoring a single female over one day, recording all incidences ...

A study has been able to accurately determine the age of the Neanderthal remains found in the El Sidrón cave (Asturias, Spain) for which previous studies had provided inexact measurements. The application of a pre-treatment to reduce contamination by modern carbon has managed to lower the margin of error from 40,000 to just 3,200 years. El Sidrón cave in Asturias (northern Spain) is one of the westernmost Neanderthal sites on the Iberian Peninsula and contains a large amount of this type of remains in addition to the flint tools they used. Now, thanks to the development ...

VIDEO: There are new clues in the search to rediscover the mysterious Maya Blue formula. Click here for more information. The recipe and process for preparing Maya Blue, a highly-resistant pigment used for centuries in Mesoamerica, were lost. We know that the ingredients are a plant dye, indigo, and a type of clay known as palygorskite, but scientists do not know how they were 'cooked' and combined together. Now, a team of chemists from the University of Valencia and the Polythecnic ...

New Orleans, LA – Research led by David H. Martin, MD, Professor and Chief of Infectious Diseases at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that a common sexually transmitted infection-causing parasite "cultivates" bacteria beneficial to it, changing thinking about which comes first–infection or bacteria. The researchers also discovered a previously unknown species of these bacteria. The research was published ahead of print online in Advance Access in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, and was published online April 2, 2013 in Research Highlights in Nature ...

Cambridge, UK, April 2, 2013 – Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) technologies allow identification of genetic disorders in human preimplantation embryos after in vitro fertilization (IVF) and before the embryo is transferred back to the patient. This technique allows couples with a high-risk of passing on inherited diseases, to increase their chances of having a healthy baby. Despite the theoretical benefits of PGD, clinical outcomes using these technologies vary, possibly because of the need to remove one or more cells from the embryo using biopsy. In a recent ...

Situated at the foothills of the Western Tian-Shan, Kyrgyzstan is home to a diverse range of vascular plants, many of which are endemic and can only be found in very narrowly circumscribed areas. Such is the case for the onion species Allium spathulatum that had long remained undetected in spite of living within the famous Sary-Chelek Nature Reserve. Even in close proximity to the headquarters it remained unnoticed until it was finally described in 1998. The species occurs in the low-altitude forest zone, between 1600 and 1700 m a.s.l., dwelling in river valleys, on open ...

Scientists use genetically modified laboratory mice to investigate the underlying mechanisms of diseases. These "knockout" mice carry genes or gene regions that are thought to trigger diseases. For laboratories, the knockout technique requires a lot of time and effort. "Scientists start by engineering a genetic defect into embryonic stem cells," explains Prof. Wolfgang Wurst, who carries out research at Technische Universität München (TUM) and Helmholtz Zentrum München. "Then they implant the manipulated stem cells into a mouse embryo." Genetic defects made to order After ...

Two Canadian scientists have undertaken the challenging task to bring up to date the catalogues written by one of the most passionate collectors of beetles, Coleoptera, in the 19th century, Pierre Dejean. Dr. Yves Bousquet and Dr. Patrice Bouchard, who work with the Canadian National Collection of Insects, Arachnids and Nematodes, have now produced a pioneering detailed review of the important nomenclatural and taxonomic data in these rich publications. Two articles analyzing the Coleoptera genera in the second (1833) and third (1836) catalogues of Dejean's collection were ...

Biologists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off. In the journal "Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience" they report that the molecule 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, also known as vitamin P, ensures the survival of motor neurons in culture. It sends the survival signal on another path than the molecule Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which was previously considered a candidate for the treatment of motoneuron diseases or after spinal cord damage. "The Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor only had a limited ...

MIAMI – April 2, 2013 – Ocean acidification, which occurs as CO2 is absorbed by the world's oceans, is a source of concern for marine scientists worldwide. Studies on coral, mollusks, and other ocean denizens are helping to paint a picture of what the future might entail for specific species, should carbon emissions continue to increase. In a new study published in Global Change Biology, University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science researchers Sean Bignami, Su Sponaugle, and Robert Cowen are the first to study the effects of acidification ...

Porous polymer scaffolds fabricated to support the growth of biological tissue for implantation may hold the potential to greatly accelerate the development of cancer therapeutics. Researchers at Rice University and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reported this week that three-dimensional scaffolds used to culture Ewing's sarcoma cells were effective at mimicking the environment in which such tumors develop. Their research appears online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of ...

People with mental illnesses are more than seven times more likely to use cannabis weekly compared to people without a mental illness, according to researchers from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) who studied U.S. data. Cannabis is the most widely used illicit substance globally, with an estimated 203 million people reporting use. Although research has found links between cannabis use and mental illness, exact numbers and prevalence of problem cannabis use had not been investigated. "We know that people with mental illness consume more cannabis, ...

Olympic swimmers aren't the only ones who change their strokes to escape competitors. To escape from the jaws and claws of predators in cold, viscous water, marine copepods switch from a wave-like swimming stroke to big power strokes, a behavior that has now been revealed thanks to 3-D high-speed digital holography. Copepods are tiny crustaceans found in nearly every aquatic environment on Earth. By some estimates, they are the most abundant animals on the planet. Their change in stroke in cold water helps them escape a slew of predators, from larval fish to crabs, ...

Spiral galaxies are some of the most beautiful and photogenic residents of the universe. Our own Milky Way is a spiral. Our solar system and Earth reside somewhere near one of its filamentous arms. And nearly 70 percent of the galaxies closest to the Milky Way are spirals. But despite their common shape, how galaxies like ours get and maintain their characteristic arms has proved to be an enduring puzzle in astrophysics. How do the arms of spiral galaxies arise? Do they change or come and go over time? The answers to these and other questions are now coming into focus ...

The American Board of Internal Medicine Foundation recently recommended against routine use of medications to treat infants for gastroesophageal reflux (GERD), commonly known as reflux disease. From 1999-2004 the use of prescription medications to treat this disease in infants increased 700 percent. However, these acid-reducing medications have been found to be ineffective at alleviating symptoms commonly diagnosed as GERD, such as excessive crying and spitting up. This suggests that GERD is often over-diagnosed in infants. In a new study, MU Psychology Professor Laura ...