Medical Research News

RSS

Notch protein plays a critical role in bone formation

Notch, a protein known to govern the determination of cell differentiation into different kinds of tissues in embryos, plays a critical role in bone formation and strength later in life, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in a report that appears online today in the journal Nature Medicine.

26 Feb 2008

New chemical tool kit manipulates mitochondria, reveals insights into drug toxicity

Why do nearly 1 million people taking cholesterol-lowering statins often experience muscle cramps? Why is it that in the rare case when a diabetic takes medication for intestinal worms, his glucose levels improve? Is there any scientific basis for the purported health effects of green tea?

26 Feb 2008

Hope for low back pain sufferers

New research to be carried out at The University of Nottingham could have a major impact on the way that people struggling with low back pain are helped to stay in work.

26 Feb 2008

Hair loss breakthrough

A healthy individual loses around a hundred hairs a day. Nothing to worry about as long as they are constantly replaced and the losses occur evenly around the whole scalp.

26 Feb 2008

Genetic mutation linked to peripheral artery disease

The finding, appearing online in the journal Circulation, is the first to document a genetic mutation linked to PAD. Although the work was done in mice, researchers say it is likely to give them new insight into how PAD develops and progresses in humans.

26 Feb 2008

New discovery on how gene-regulatory networks govern metabolism

Metabolism is a central feature of life - a myriad of biochemical processes that, together, enable organisms to nourish and sustain themselves.

26 Feb 2008

Brain tumour gene link found

Cancer Research UK funded scientists have discovered a mutation in a DNA repair gene which may increase the risk of developing meningioma , a rare type of brain tumour , according to new research published in the latest edition of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute .

26 Feb 2008

Novel hMSH2 gene mutation in colorectal cancer patients

About 20% of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients have a genetic component and HNPCC is the most common autosomal dominant hereditary syndrome.

25 Feb 2008

Newly discovered ERK pathway proteins related to CagA induced disease

Cytotoxin-associated gene A protein (CagA) from type I H.pylori has been proved by epidemiological and experimental studies to be closely associated with the H.pylori induced gastric diseases, especially gastric cancer.

25 Feb 2008

Researchers explore the antidepressant effects of ketamine

Drug treatments for depression can take many weeks for the beneficial effects to emerge.

22 Feb 2008

Novel link between excessive nutrient levels and insulin resistance

For quite some time now, scientists suspected the so-called hexosamine pathway - a small side business of the main sugar processing enterprise inside a cell - to be involved in the development of insulin resistance.

22 Feb 2008

New understanding of how big molecules bind will lead to better drugs, synthetic organic materials

Biological and medical research is on the threshold of a new era based on better understanding of how large organic molecules bind together and recognise each other.

22 Feb 2008

Link between excessive food intake and insulin resistance

22 Feb 2008

Kidney donor age linked to aortic siffening

Transplantation of kidneys from older donors is followed by increased stiffening of the recipient's aorta - which may help to explain the higher rates of cardiovascular disease and death in patients receiving kidneys from "expanded criteria" donors, reports a study in the April Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

22 Feb 2008

Guidelines for evaluation of psychological side-effects of brain injury

In her PhD, defended at the University of the Basque Country, Maria Luisa de Francisco Maiz provided a clinical-forensic evaluation of brain injuries and also a study on the variables that influence the length of "legal time periods".

21 Feb 2008

New proof-of-principle findings that thymic involution can be reversed in humans

Scientists at the Gladstone Institute of Virology and Immunology (GIVI) and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) have found that therapy can be used to stimulate the production of vital immune cells, called "T- cells," in adults with HIV infection.

21 Feb 2008