Brown fat is a specialized tissue in mammals that is used to generate heat (thermogenesis). While white fat is associated with increased body mass, brown fat is associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) and consumes large amounts of energy. Researchers have long been intrigued by the idea of brown fat transplant as a therapeutic tool to combat obesity. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Laurie Goodyear at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, performed brown fat transplants in mice to determine if this intervention could treat ...

Brown fat transplants help mice lose weight Brown fat is a specialized tissue in mammals that is used to generate heat (thermogenesis). While white fat is associated with increased body mass, brown fat is associated with a lower body mass index (BMI) and consumes large amounts of energy. Researchers have long been intrigued by the idea of brown fat transplant as a therapeutic tool to combat obesity. In this issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers led by Laurie Goodyear at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, performed brown fat transplants in mice ...

CINCINNATI – Researchers conducting a preclinical study in mice successfully used targeted molecular therapy to block mostly untreatable nerve tumors that develop in people with the genetic disorder Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1). Scientists from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center report their findings online Dec. 10 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. "We can for the first time shrink the large majority of neurofibromas, at least in mice, by using a molecularly targeted treatment," said Nancy Ratner, PhD, principal investigator and program leader for the ...

Alternative means of controlling urban insect pests by using ultrasonic frequencies are available and marketed to the public. However, few of these devices have been demonstrated as being effective in repelling insect pests such as mosquitoes, cockroaches, or ants. Despite the lack of evidence for the efficacy of such devices, they continue to be sold and new versions targeting bed bugs are readily available. However, according to a soon-to-be-published article in the Journal of Economic Entomology, commercial devices that produce ultrasound frequencies are NOT promising ...

Depressed elderly men have a twofold risk of admission to hospital, found a new study published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). This finding could have potential for helping identify at-risk men to prevent admissions. "Men with depression had a twofold increase in the mean number of hospital admissions, and these lasted on average twice as long as for men without depression," writes Dr. Matthew Prina, Institute of Public Health, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK, with coauthors. Researchers from Australia, the UK and the Netherlands undertook a study ...

Vertebrates' transition to living on land, instead of only in water, represented a major event in the history of life. Now, researchers reporting in the December issue of the Cell Press journal Developmental Cell provide new evidence that the development of hands and feet occurred through the gain of new DNA elements that activate particular genes. "First, and foremost, this finding helps us to understand the power that the modification of gene expression has on shaping our bodies," says Dr. José Luis Gómez-Skarmeta of the CSIC-Universidad Pablo de Olavide-Junta de Andalucía, ...

The orientation of antibody binding to bacteria can mean life or death to the bug, according to a study published in The Journal of Experimental Medicine on December 10th. These findings may help explain why these bacteria cause millions of localized infections, but more serious, systemic blood infections are rare. Streptococcus pyogenes—the causative agent of strep throat—typically invades the body's mucosal surfaces, including the throat and skin. These invasions are kept in check by Y-shaped immune proteins called antibodies, which attach to the bug via their arm ...

One of the most frustrating truths about cancer is that even when a treatment works, it often doesn’t work for long because cancer cells find ways to resist. However, researchers reporting studies done in mice in the December 11, 2012, issue of Cancer Cell, a Cell Press publication, may have a way to stay one step ahead in the case of aggressive metastatic breast cancer. The findings emphasize the importance of basic cancer biology for advancing treatments that are more effective and less toxic, the researchers say. "We need to gain a better understanding of the wiring ...

Patients with sickle cell disease rely more on the emergency room as they move from pediatric to adult health care, according to researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. An analysis of Medicaid data of more than 3,200 patients with sickle cell disease shows that emergency room visits tripled from age 15 to age 24. The research is reported Dec. 10 at the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting, in Atlanta. "There seems to be a breakdown in medical care during the transition from childhood to adulthood," says hematologist Morey A. ...

(ATLANTA, December 10, 2012) – Research unveiling key gaps in continuity of care for sickle cell patients transitioning from pediatric to adult care will be presented this week during the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Sickle cell disease (SCD) is an inherited, chronic blood disorder affecting between 90,000 and 100,000 Americans. Instead of producing healthy red blood cells, individuals with the disease produce abnormal, sickle-shaped cells that cannot easily move through blood vessels and deliver adequate oxygen to the body's tissues ...

BOSTON – December 10, 2012 – Joslin Diabetes Center scientists have demonstrated that brown adipose tissue (BAT) has beneficial effects on glucose tolerance, body weight and metabolism. The findings, which may lead to new treatments for diabetes, appear in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation. Unlike the more prevalent white adipose tissue (WAT or white fat) which stores fat, BAT (or brown fat) burns fat to produce heat. Studies in mice and humans have suggested that BAT also plays a role in regulating body weight and metabolism. This has made ...

Josh Miller likes to call himself a conservation paleobiologist. The label makes sense when he explains how he uses bones as up-to-last-season information on contemporary animal populations. Bones, he says, provide baseline ecological data on animals complementary to aerial counts, adding a historical component to live observation. In his November cover article for the Ecological Society of America's journal Ecology, he assesses elk habitat use in Yellowstone National Park by their bones and antlers, testing his method against several decades of the Park Service's meticulous ...

A new oral agent under review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is safe and effective in treating relapsed and treatment-resistant multiple myeloma, according to a multicenter, Phase II study presented by Mount Sinai School of Medicine researchers at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. The meeting is taking place December 8-11, 2012 in Atlanta. A multi-center research team evaluated 113 patients with multiple myeloma who had received at least two prior therapies and had subsequent disease progression to determine safety and efficacy of ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 10, 2012) - For people using 30-day extended-wear/continuous-wear (EW/CW) contact lenses, replacing lenses at night doesn't lower the risk of complications compared to changing lenses monthly, suggests a study – "The Effect of Daily Lens Replacement During Overnight Wear on Ocular Adverse Events", appearing in the December issue of Optometry and Vision Science, official journal of the American Academy of Optometry. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. In contrast, replacing lenses every ...

Philadelphia, Pa. (December 10, 2012) - As surgical teams gain experience with facial transplantation, a careful approach to planning based on the principles of craniofacial surgery can help to maximize patient outcomes in terms of facial form and function, according to an article in The Journal of Craniofacial Surgery. The journal, under the editorship of Mutaz B. Habal, MD, is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part ofWolters Kluwer Health. In patients with extensive facial defects including loss of the normal bone and soft tissue landmarks, a "reverse craniofacial ...

(ATLANTA, December 10, 2012) – A survey highlighting the correlation between today's cutting edge medical research and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding was released today at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the preeminent medical meeting for physicians and scientists in hematology that draws more than 20,000 attendees from around the world. The survey, representing responses from 1,040 abstract presenters from the U.S. and abroad, demonstrates how critical NIH funding has been to the success of science and medicine. "Every ...

We all perhaps know the feeling of mental exhaustion, but what does it mean physiologically to have mental fatigue? A new study carried out using brain scans could help scientists uncover the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mental fatigue. According to Bui Ha Duc and Xiaoping Li of the National University of Singapore writing in a forthcoming issue of the International Journal Computer Applications in Technology, mental fatigue has become commonplace as many people face increasing mental demands from stressful jobs, longer working hours with less time to relax and ...

A study conducted by researchers at the University of Granada Group of Neuropsychology and Clinical Psychoneuroimmunology has demonstrated that cortisol levels in saliva are associated with a person's ability to make good decisions in stressful situations. To perform this study, the researchers exposed the participants (all women) to a stressful situation by using sophisticated virtual reality technology. The study revealed that people who are not skilled in decision-making have lower baseline cortisol levels in saliva as compared to skilled people. Cortisol –known ...

Experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have revealed a potential new way to attack common stomach bacteria that cause ulcers and significantly increase the odds of developing stomach cancer. The breakthrough, made using powerful X-rays from SLAC's Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), was the culmination of five years of research into the bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which is so tough it can live in strong stomach acid. At least half the world's population carries H. pylori and hundreds of millions suffer ...

At this time of year it is hard to escape the Three Wise Men, riding their camels across Christmas cards and appearing in minature form in countless school nativity plays across the world, bearing their gifts for the infant Jesus. Whilst we are all familiar with gold (especialliy in this Olympic year), it is the mention of frankincense and myrrh that really says "Christmas" to us and and takes our imaginations back to ancient times. But you might be surprised to learn that these two fragrances are still big business today; for example, Ethiopia alone trades around 4000 ...

Philadelphia, PA, December 10, 2012 – A large body of research has focused on the ability of oxytocin to facilitate social bonding in both marital and parenting relationships in human females. A new laboratory study, led by Dr. Ruth Feldman from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and published in the current issue of Biological Psychiatry, has found that oxytocin administration to fathers increases their parental engagement, with parallel effects observed in their infants. Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that plays an important role in the formation of attachment bonds. Studies ...

Onion and garlic waste from the food industry could be used to mop up hazardous heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, iron, lead, mercury and tin in contaminated materials, according to a research paper published in the International Journal of Environment and Pollution. Biotechnologists Rahul Negi, Gouri Satpathy, Yogesh Tyagi and Rajinder Gupta of the GGS Indraprastha University in Delhi, India, explain how waste from the processing and canning of onion (Allium cepa L.) and garlic (Allium sativum L.) could be used as an alternative remediation material for removing ...

A system that uses ultrasound technology to look inside car engines could lead to more efficient engines – and huge fuel savings for motorists. Ultrasound scans have long been a fundamental tool in healthcare for looking inside the human body, but they have never before been put to use in testing the health of a modern combustion engine. In the University of Sheffield's Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rob Dwyer-Joyce, Professor of Lubrication Engineering, has devised a method of using ultrasound to measure how efficiently an engine's pistons are moving up and ...

ANN ARBOR, Mich. — As we get older, the trillions of cells in our body do too. And like us, they become less resilient and able to weather the stress of everyday life. Our skin especially tells the tale of what's happening throughout our bodies. But recently, scientists have learned that aging cells bear only part of the blame for this downward spiral. And a new study shows that it might be possible to slow the decline of aging tissue – and even make it act younger -- by focusing on the stuff that surrounds those cells. In an independent study at the University of Michigan ...

Strasbourg, France, 10 December, 2012: Dedicated funding and support is required to ensure personalised medicine can be implemented across Europe's healthcare systems, according to a new report issued by the European Science Foundation's (ESF) membership organisation for all medical research councils in Europe, the European Medical Research Councils (EMRC). The report entitled Personalised Medicine for the European Citizen, brought together experts from a wide range of disciplines to identify the most pressing issues affecting the development and implementation of personalised ...