in vitro News and Research

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Aching back? cholesterol drug Lovastatin might help

Back pain, a hallmark of degenerative disc disease, sends millions of people to their doctor. In fact, more than 80 percent of patients who undergo spine surgery do so because of disc degeneration.

22 Feb 2009

GABAergic system shows promise as molecular target for liver cancer therapy

Although GABA and GABA receptors function as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mature CNS, abnormal levels of gene and protein expression of some GABA receptor subunits have been detected in many malignant tumors, such as ð subunit in pancreatic cancer.

18 Feb 2009

A stem cell bandage for your knee

Building on his previous work, Hollander and his team, which included Dr Wael Kafienah and Dr John Tarlton, announced in 2005 they had, for the first time ever, successfully grown human cartilage from a patient's own bone marrow stem cells.

18 Feb 2009

Discovery of new mechanism that tumours use to stimulate growth of blood vessels that feed them

The development of cancerous tumours is highly dependent on the nutrients the tumours receive through the blood.

11 Feb 2009

ViroPharma reports results of trial for Maribavir in bone marrow transplant patients

ViroPharma Incorporated has announced that its Phase 3 trial evaluating maribavir used as prophylaxis in allogeneic stem cell, or bone marrow, transplant (SCT) patients did not achieve its primary endpoint.

10 Feb 2009

Micro RNA plays a key role in melanoma metastasis

Scientists have long wondered how melanoma cells travel from primary tumors on the surface of the skin to the brain, liver and lungs, where they become more aggressive, resistant to therapy, and deadly.

9 Feb 2009

Green tea may counteract anticancer effects of cancer therapy, bortezomib (Velcade)

Green tea products have become regarded as a valuable health supplement, as studies have shown evidence of its benefit against a variety of diseases, including cancer.

3 Feb 2009

New inhibitors could be new class of cancer drugs

A team of Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators has developed a group of chemical compounds that could represent a new class of drugs for treating cancer.

3 Feb 2009

Advancement in tissue engineering promotes oral wound healing

Oral tissue engineering for transplantation to aid wound healing in mouth (oral cavity) reconstruction has taken a significant step forward with a Netherlands-based research team's successful development of a gum tissue (gingival) substitute that can be used for reconstruction in the oral cavity.

3 Feb 2009

Researchers investigate prenatal smoking link with bad behavior in kids

A Cardiff University research project has for the first time studied whether smoking during pregnancy can directly make children more likely to behave anti-socially.

2 Feb 2009

Plums poised to give blueberries run for the money

There's an emerging star in the super-food world. Plums are rolling down the food fashion runway sporting newly discovered high levels of healthy nutrients, say scientists at Texas AgriLife Research.

29 Jan 2009

Discovery could lead to novel arrhythmia treatments

Abnormal heart rhythms - arrhythmias - are killers. They strike without warning, causing sudden cardiac death, which accounts for about 10 percent of all deaths in the United States.

21 Jan 2009

Savella - Fibromyalgia treatment approved by FDA

Forest Laboratories, Inc. and Cypress Bioscience, Inc. have announced that Savella (milnacipran HCl), a selective serotonin and norepinephrine dual reuptake inhibitor, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the management of fibromyalgia.

19 Jan 2009

Study examines live birth rates following IVF

Thirty years ago last summer, the world's first "test-tube" baby was born, and since then more than 1 million infants have been successfully conceived through in vitro fertilization (IVF), the technique in which a woman's eggs and man's sperm are fertilized in a laboratory and then implanted in the mother's womb.

15 Jan 2009

Black raspberries have chemopreventive potential

A study published in Cancer Prevention Research , a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, identifies components of black raspberries with chemopreventive potential.

8 Jan 2009

Gene marker may improve odds of stem cell therapies for disease

A single tumor-suppressor gene may provide a unique marker for senescence in Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in vitro, while also playing a role in moving MSCs into senescence, researchers at the Human Health Foundation and the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine report.

7 Jan 2009

Vatican blames the Pill for environmental pollution

According to the Vatican's official newspaper, the contraceptive pill is a major cause of male infertility in the West and is also polluting the environment.

7 Jan 2009

New methods for studying DNA repair and protein modification

This month's issue of Cold Spring Harbor Protocols features two articles detailing experimental methods for the analysis of molecular processes involved in DNA repair and post-translational modification of proteins.

5 Jan 2009

Attitudes towards assisted reproduction and preimplantation genetic diagnosis

According to an international survey by the BBVA Foundation conducted this year, citizens in advanced societies view assisted reproduction techniques in general and in vitro fertilization in particular as firmly acceptable alternatives for people with fertility problems (over 7 points on an acceptance scale from 0 to 10 in twelve of the fifteen survey countries).

17 Dec 2008

Researchers find brain's reward and stress signaling circuits are intertwined in complex ways

Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators have now discovered a functional link between reward and stress. They found that dopamine - the brain's chief reward signal - works through corticotrophin-releasing factor (CRF) - the brain's main stress signal - to increase the activity of a brain region involved in addiction relapse.

16 Dec 2008