Los Angeles, CA (April 23, 2013) -- Male athletes are the group most likely to tear their Achilles tendon, according to a new study published in the April 2013 issue of Foot & Ankle International (FAI), A SAGE journal. The activity most likely to cause the injury was basketball, and NBA players such as Kobe Bryant have been in the news lately for this exact injury. Drs. Steven Raikin, David Garras and Philip Krapchev reviewed 406 records from patients at one clinic diagnosed with Achilles tendon injuries from August 2000 and December 2010. The average age was 46 years ...

A new drug is offering dramatic cure rates for hepatitis C patients with two subtypes of the infection -- genotype 2 and 3, say a team of scientists led by Weill Cornell Medical College researchers. These two subtypes account for approximately 25 percent of hepatitis C infection in the United States. The drug, called sofosbuvir, offers more effective treatment for most patients studied in a Phase 3 clinical trial who had no other treatment options, report researchers in The New England Journal of Medicine. After three months of combined therapy with sofosbuvir and the ...

An ACE in the hole for hypertension There are multiple environmental triggers that contribute to high blood pressure (hypertension), including aging, obesity, stress, alcohol intake, and excess dietary salt; however, the physiological mechanisms that are regulated by these triggers are not fully understood. Blood pressure is controlled in part by the renin angiotensin system (RAS), which manages the release of the hormone angiotensin to control blood vessel constriction. ACE is an enzyme that converts angiotensin to its active form, Ang II, and ACE inhibitors are commonly ...

Peripartum cardiomyopathy (PPCM) is a deterioration in cardiac function that occurs in pregnant women during the last month or in the months following their pregnancy. This disorder can occur in women with no prior history of heart disease and the causes are not well understood. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Ingrid Struman and colleagues at the University of Liege in Liege, Belgium, identified a molecule, miR-146a, that can serve as a biomarker for peripartum cardiomyopathy. Struman and colleagues found that expression of miR-146a was induced by ...

Pancreatic beta cells store and release insulin, the hormone responsible for stimulating cells to convert glucose to energy. The number of beta cells in the pancreas increases in response to greater demand for insulin or injury, but it is not clear if the new beta cells are the result of cell division or the differentiation of a precursor cell, a process known as neogenesis. Knowledge of how beta cells are created and maintained is critical to understanding diseases in which these cells are lost, such as diabetes. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, ...

STANFORD, Calif. — Stanford University School of Medicine scientists have created a mouse model of muscular dystrophy in which degenerating muscle tissue gives off visible light. The observed luminescence occurs only in damaged muscle tissue and in direct proportion to cumulative damage sustained in that tissue, permitting precise monitoring of the disease's progress in the mice, the researchers say. While this technique cannot be used in humans, it paves the way to quicker, cheaper and more accurate assessment of the efficacy of therapeutic drugs. The new mouse strain ...

BOSTON—A fur trader who suffered an accidental gunshot wound in 1822 and the physician who saw this unfortunate incidence as an opportunity for research are key to much of our early knowledge about the workings of the digestive system, say speakers of an upcoming symposium. These speakers—Jay Dean, Ph.D., of the University of South Florida, Richard Rogers, Ph.D., of Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, and Patrick Lambert, Ph.D., of Creighton University—will give their symposium presentation entitled, "William Beaumont: America's First Physiologist ...

Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies, are one of about 18 families of chalcid wasps. Fairyflies occur worldwide, except in Antarctica. They include the world's smallest known winged insect - Kikiki huna, the body length of which is only 155 μm, and the smallest known adult insect – the wingless male of Dicopomorpha echmepterygis which is only 130 μm. Although fairyflies are among the most common chalcid wasps, they are seldomly noticed by humans because of their minute size. Their apparent invisibility, gracile bodies and delicate wings with long fringes resembling ...

By 2030, you — and every U.S. taxpayer — could be paying $244 a year to care for heart failure patients, according to an American Heart Association policy statement. The statement, published online in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure, predicts: The number of people with heart failure could climb 46 percent from 5 million in 2012 to 8 million in 2030. Direct and indirect costs to treat heart failure could more than double from $31 billion in 2012 to $70 billion in 2030. "If we don't improve or reduce the incidence of heart failure ...

A Chinese study presented at the International Liver CongressTM 2013 has demonstrated the accuracy of a non-invasive test for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) diagnosis. Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver disease (NAFLD) comprises two groups of patients; one group with simple steatosis which is relatively benign and one group with NASH which may progress to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Up to now the only means of distinguishing the two was to perform a liver biopsy. Phosphorus magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P-MRS), which allows non-invasive in vivo assessment ...

Amsterdam, The Netherlands, Wednesday 24 April 2013: New data from a number of clinical trials presented for the first time at the International Liver Congress™ 2013 demonstrate encouraging results in the use of new direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) for the treatment of hepatitis C. The following covers key results from the much anticipated Phase III trials conducted among HCV patients with a range of genotypes (GT 1 to 6) on DAA treatment. POSITRON A study of interferon (IFN)-ineligible, IFN-intolerant, or IFN-unwilling cirrhotic and non-cirrhotic GT 2 and ...

Resistive memory cells (ReRAM) are regarded as a promising solution for future generations of computer memories. They will dramatically reduce the energy consumption of modern IT systems while significantly increasing their performance. Unlike the building blocks of conventional hard disk drives and memories, these novel memory cells are not purely passive components but must be regarded as tiny batteries. This has been demonstrated by researchers of Jülich Aachen Research Alliance (JARA), whose findings have now been published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. ...

Researcher Johan Jakobsson and his colleagues have now published their results in Nature Communications. "At present, researchers know very little about exactly how microglia work. At the same time, there is a lot of curiosity and high hopes among brain researchers that greater understanding of microglia could lead to entirely new drug development strategies for various brain diseases", says Johan Jakobsson, research group leader at the Division of Molecular Neurogenetics at Lund University. What the researchers have now succeeded in identifying is a deviation in the ...

An international team of scientists, including Dr Paul Brotherton from the University of Huddersfield, reveal that events after the initial migration of farmers into Europe had a major impact on the modern gene pool. The paper, published in Nature Communications, investigates a major component of the maternal population history of modern Europeans by focusing on haplogroup H mitochondrial genomes from ancient human remains. This genetic data is then compared with cultural changes taking place between the Early Neolithic (~5450 BC) and Bronze Age (~2200 BC) in Central Europe. ...

New research from the University of Southampton has found that working or travelling on an underground railway for a sustained period of time could have health implications. Previously published work suggests that working in environments such as steel mills or welding plants, which are rich in airborne metals, like iron, copper and nickel, can have damaging effects on health. However, little research has been done on the effects of working in an underground railway environment – a similarly metal-rich environment – and results of studies that have been conducted are often ...

VIDEO: The Natural Killer white blood cell in red is drawn to the cancerous B cell which has been treated with rituximab. It latches on to the side of the cell... Click here for more information. Scientists from the Manchester Collaborative Centre for Inflammation Research (MCCIR) have discovered why a particular cancer drug is so effective at killing cells. Their findings could be used to aid the design of future cancer treatments. Professor Daniel Davis and his team ...

Scientists in Mainz and Aachen have discovered a new mechanism that controls egg cell fertility and that might have future therapeutic potential. It was revealed by Professor Dr. Walter Stöcker of the Institute of Zoology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) that the blood protein fetuin-B plays an important and previously unknown role in the fertilization of oocytes. Fetuin-B, first identified in the year 2000, is formed in the liver and secreted into the blood stream. During a joint research project with researchers at RWTH Aachen University headed by Professor ...

A multicenter study led by scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine shows that mild traumatic brain injury after blast exposure produces inflammation, oxidative stress and gene activation patterns akin to disorders of memory processing such as Alzheimer's disease. Their findings were recently reported in the online version of the Journal of Neurotrauma. Blast-induced traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become an important issue in combat casualty care, said senior investigator Patrick Kochanek, M.D., professor and vice chair of critical care medicine ...

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2013—Streetlights illuminate the night, shining upon roadways and sidewalks across the world, but these ubiquitous elements of the urban environment are notoriously inefficient and major contributors to light pollution that washes out the night sky. Recent innovations in light emitting diodes (LEDs) have improved the energy efficiency of streetlights, but, until now, their glow still wastefully radiated beyond the intended area. A team of researchers from Taiwan and Mexico has developed a new lighting system design that harnesses high-efficiency LEDs ...

UPTON, NY — In a paper to be published in an upcoming issue of Energy & Environmental Science (now available online), researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory describe details of a low-cost, stable, effective catalyst that could replace costly platinum in the production of hydrogen. The catalyst, made from renewable soybeans and abundant molybdenum metal, produces hydrogen in an environmentally friendly, cost-effective manner, potentially increasing the use of this clean energy source. The research has already garnered widespread recognition ...

CINCINNATI – Researchers report in Nature Genetics they have increased the number of confirmed genes linked to juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) from three to 17 – a finding that will clarify how JIA fits into the spectrum of autoimmune disorders and help identify potential treatment targets. Published April 21, the study involves an international research team that analyzed 2,816 JIA cases recruited from more than 40 pediatric rheumatology clinics. It was the largest collaborative patient population of JIA to date, including patient DNA samples from across the United ...

CINCINNATI—Researchers at the University of Cincinnati have found that targeted screening for populations with a higher estimated prevalence for hepatitis C may be cost-effective. These findings, published in the April 24, 2013, online edition of the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, indicate that targeted screening for chronic hepatitis C virus infection is cost-effective when the prevalence of hepatitis C in a population exceeds 0.84 percent (84/10,000). The study further demonstrates how a screening tool, which can be incorporated into an electronic health ...

National Science Foundation-funded researchers at Purdue University have discovered that sunlit snow is the major source of atmospheric bromine in the Arctic, the key to unique chemical reactions that purge pollutants and destroy ozone. The new research also indicates that the surface snowpack above Arctic sea ice plays a previously unappreciated role in the bromine cycle and that loss of sea ice, which been occurring at an increasingly rapid pace in recent years, could have extremely disruptive effects in the balance of atmospheric chemistry in high latitudes. The ...

University of Nebraska-Lincoln materials engineers have developed a structural nanofiber that is both strong and tough, a discovery that could transform everything from airplanes and bridges to body armor and bicycles. Their findings are featured on the cover of this week's April issue of the American Chemical Society's journal, ACS Nano. "Whatever is made of composites can benefit from our nanofibers," said the team's leader, Yuris Dzenis, McBroom Professor of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and a member of UNL's Nebraska Center for Materials and Nanoscience. "Our ...

A first-ever vaccine created by University of Guelph researchers for gut bacteria common in autistic children may also help control some autism symptoms. The groundbreaking study by Brittany Pequegnat and Guelph chemistry professor Mario Monteiro appears this month in the journal Vaccine. They developed a carbohydrate-based vaccine against the gut bug, Clostridium bolteae. C. bolteae is known to play a role in gastrointestinal disorders, and it often shows up in higher numbers in the GI tracts of autistic children than in those of healthy kids. More than 90 per ...