Muscle News and Research

RSS

A common antibiotic used to treat arthritis and acne shows promise for limiting the severity of spinal cord and brain injuries

When a fall, car crash, bullet, or knife crushes or cuts a spinal cord, the injury does not stop there. Rather, tissues continue to discharge toxic chemicals for hours, even days and weeks. These chemicals kill and disable nerve cells some distance away from the core injury, compounding the damage and making rehabilitation more difficult or impossible.

26 Mar 2004

Growth factor protein succeeds in growing new coronary arteries

Three patients of the UC Heart & Vascular Center have grown new coronary artery branches to increase blood flow to the heart after receiving a new growth factor protein (FGF1) in November 2003. All three patients showed improved blood flow to the heart twelve weeks following the injection.

26 Mar 2004

Bone marrow stem cells do not help regenerate heart muscle tissue, UW study finds, contradicting earlier study

Researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine have found that bone marrow stem cells do not convert into heart muscle cells in mice. These results contradict a study conducted elsewhere that had prompted human clinical trials for such stem cell therapy in the treatment of heart attack.

23 Mar 2004

Oregon Stem Cell Center Hunt for Human Disease Therapies

Oregon Health & Science University's fast-growing stem cell research program, which already has made significant strides in the hunt for human disease therapies, now has a place to call home.

23 Mar 2004

Raptiva, 20 percent improvement in an individual's signs and symptoms of arthritis.

Genentech, Inc. and XOMA Ltd. today announced preliminary results of a randomized, placebo-controlled Phase II study with RAPTIVA™ (efalizumab) in 107 patients with psoriatic arthritis. The study did not reach statistical significance at 12 weeks (84 days) for the primary endpoint, ACR 20 response. An ACR 20 response indicates at least a 20 percent improvement in an individual's signs and symptoms of arthritis.

22 Mar 2004

New pill for post-traumatic stress disorder

Every day, people suffer traumatic experiences that scar their minds. Combat, rape, bombings, burns, beatings, and horrific car accidents haunt them with memories impossible to suppress. Such day- and nightmares are part of a problem known as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

22 Mar 2004

Study of three treatments of type 2 diabetes in children and teens has begun in US

A clinical study comparing three treatments of type 2 diabetes in children and teens has begun in 12 medical centers and their affiliated sites around the country, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced today.

22 Mar 2004

Drug Based on Brain Chemical Could End Narcolepsy and Insomnia

Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered a potentially new avenue for treating human narcolepsy, and the work may also lead to more effective ways for insomniacs to boost their wakefulness during the daytime.

22 Mar 2004

Molecules That Trigger a Heartbeat

Two biomedical engineering students at Johns Hopkins are mapping the interaction of molecules within a cardiac cell, describing microscopic movements that could be critical for maintaining a healthy heartbeat. The students, seniors Bhuvan Srinivasan and Carol Xiaoying Koh, have presented their findings at two prestigious computational biology conferences and are now collaborating with their faculty supervisor on a paper for a scientific journal.

22 Mar 2004