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From a cotton candy machine?
April 2009
ITHACA, NY - New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center noted doctors and scientists from Weill and Cornell University may have a way to create engineered tissue that’s accepted better by the body.
Today, engineered tissues replace damaged tissue due to injury, burns, or surgery.
They’re limited in size and often die from lack of blood supply that provides life-giving nutrients.
"For decades, the lack of a suitable blood supply has been the major limitation of tissue engineering," says Dr. Jason Spector, a plastic surgeon at Weill and assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.
"Without a network of blood vessels, only small, thin swaths of engineered tissue have longevity in the body."
Using crystalline sugar, scientists created a network of tiny tubes to act as tunnels, capable of shuttling nutrition-rich blood between natural tissue and an artificial graft.
To create the sugar fibers, scientists at the Cornell NanoScale Science & Technology Facility used a common cotton candy machine.
Results were posted online at the journal Soft Matter.
WHITE PLAINS, NY - HealthDay News noted four years ago, only about one in three U.S. babies was born in a state that required newborn screening for many conditions. By yearend 2008, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had laws or rules requiring newborn screening for at least 21 disorders, a study found. "The states have made outstanding progress expanding newborn screening," said Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes (MoD), in the report. The tests check for genetic, metabolic, hormonal, and functional ills, MoD stated. Many disorders cause no visible symptoms in a baby until after damage, often permanent, is done. Some lead to mental retardation; others are fatal. The first test made available was for phenylketonuria (PKU), where the body can't process part of a protein called phenylalanine. This affects about one U.S. child in every 25,000, MoD figures. Left untreated, phenylalanine collects and can cause serious brain damage and mental retardation. Changes in diet can avoid these problems from occurring, but the diet must be started soon after birth and followed for the rest of the child's life to prevent brain damage. "Any time you can proactively identify a problem and treat it, you can avoid a lot of complications and lifelong consequences," said Dr. Jamie Grifo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Langone Medical Center. "Hopefully, we'll have a national standard on newborn screening that will benefit all children."
KANSAS CITY, KS - HealthDay News noted that burning buildings might not be the only risks firefighters face. They seem to be more likely than peers in other professions to have prematurely-narrowed arteries, raising their risk for strokes and heart attacks, a study claims. In fact, 22% of 77 firefighters studied by the University of Kansas averaged 39 years old - with blood vessels of 52-year-olds due to significant plaque buildup in their carotid arteries. "These men, as young as they are, for some reason have a high rate of early vascular disease, asymptomatic as it is," said Dr. Patrick Moriarty, director of the Atherosclerosis and LDL Apheresis Center at the UK Medical Center and study leader. "What it means is we have to find a way to make their job have less potential (for) cardiovascular risk." Findings were presented at an American Heart Association conference on cardiovascular disease. Dr. Moriarty stated the stress of being on call for 48 hours, for instance, takes a toll on the body. Also, firefighters need high-calorie meals because, if they have to leave quickly to fight a fire, they might not have another meal for 24 hours.
HAIFA, ISRAEL – Reuters reported former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof - paralyzed for 20 years - now walks with a dim mechanical hum. That’s an electronic exoskeleton moving his legs and propelling him forward as passersby stare in surprise. "I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," says Kaiof, injured serving in the Israeli military in 1988. "Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye-to-eye." The device, ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli company. Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics to stand, walk, and climb stairs. Goffer himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1997, but he can’t use his own invention because he doesn’t have full function of his arms. The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries. The user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band - stand, sit, walk, descend, or climb - and leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute report President Obama’s signature on Jan. 29, 2009 of his first bill affects the entire workforce, including the disabled. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act extends the time when an employee may cite discrimination. Toward the end of her 19-year career at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Lily Ledbetter noted Goodyear paid her less than coworkers, and sued Goodyear. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case for her failure to sue "within 180 days of the date Goodyear first paid her less than her peers." Then, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, creating a new incident of discrimination every time someone gets a smaller benefit due to a discriminatory act. Under the new law, Ms. Ledbetter would have a new claim every time she got her paycheck as it was reduced based on a discriminatory evaluation. (The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2009)
PHILADELPHIA - The talk about male sexual dysfunction has grown from a whisper to a roar. Erectile dysfunction, or ED, is no longer hush-hush. Non-stop ads convey help is just a prescription away, and as 35 million men in the U.S. have found a renewed sex life from the “little blue pill," Temple University urologist Dr. Jack Mydlo says men can improve performance without a doctor or drugstore. "The last thing I want them to do is take a pill and jump in bed because a certain part of the mechanism for erections is psychological. They have to be in the right mood, with the right person and take care of themselves" said Dr. Mydlo, professor and chair of the Dept. of Urology in the School of Medicine. Surprisingly, a good percentage of men who seek help aren’t in a relationship. "About 30% of the men who have a penile prosthesis don’t even have a partner," he said. "They’re putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, and think they’ll get a partner once they have the implant." He offers simple tips: Stop smoking, control cholesterol, cut back on fat. He suggests a visit to a urologist. "The truth is, if you don’t have a mental connection with your partner, everything will be for naught."
LONDON - HealthDay News noted a higher resting heart rate can raise risks of a heart attack in middle-aged women, a study found. "It's pretty well-established for men that higher heart rates are associated with a higher risk for heart attack," said Dr. Judith Hsia, lead author of a report in BMJ. "Until now, that data has been missing for women." The study used data on 129,135 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative. It found the 20% of women with heart rates of 76 beats a minute or greater had a 26% greater risk of a heart attack in a follow-up period of 7.8 years. "If you divided them into quintiles, there was no increased risk in the first four," said Dr. Hsia, a professor of medicine at George Washington University when she led the study and is with the drug firm AstraZeneca. "I would think of it in terms of a threshold." The added risk posed by a higher resting heart rate "isn’t as much as having a higher LDL cholesterol level, but still a good indicator," she said. Heart rate should be part of a physician's overall assessment of coronary risk in women as well as men, she said. "They would be doing a global assessment anyway, and this would be one more thing they would take into account," she said.
ATLANTA - The populations of 45 U.S. states grew fatter, making it harder for the U.S. to meet a 2010 target of reducing obesity to 15%, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Bloomberg News. Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia were the only states where obesity was less prevalent last year than in 2005, CDC reported. It cited estimates derived from individuals' self- reported data. While Colorado had the lowest prevalence of obesity, 18.7%, its rate rose from 17.4% in 2005, researchers said. The proportion of U.S. adults who reported being obese in 2007 rose to a record 25.6%, covering about 54 million people. That's up 1.7% from two years earlier, researchers said. CDC officials said the survey shows the 2010 target, set in 2000 by public and private health groups, may be elusive, leaving millions at risk for heart disease and diabetes. "It's going to be a struggle to get down to 15%, particularly for the country as a whole," said Deborah Galuska, associate director/science at CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. CDC estimates actual obesity at 34% of the population, rather than the lower figure based on the survey.
TEL AVIV - People with a family history of cancerous brain tumors seem to be at higher risk for that kind of tumor versus those with no such history, states a study in the journal Neurology. Scientists studied medical records of 1,401 Utah residents with primary brain tumors. Family history was available for at least three generations for each person. The group had at least one of two types of tumors: glioblastomas or astrocytomas. Glioblastomas are a category of astrocytomas that are cancerous and usually fast-growing and deadly. Astrocytomas are less aggressive brain or spinal cord tumors. The study found people whose immediate relatives suffered glioblastomas had twice the risk of the same kind of brain cancer. People with immediate relatives who had astrocytomas were nearly four times more likely for the same kind of tumor versus people who didn’t have immediate relatives with the brain tumor. "Our study suggests people with a family history of brain tumors should make their doctor aware of this and tell them about any other risk factors they have," said study author Dr. Deborah Blumenthal, of the Sourasky Medical Center, and the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
CLEVELAND - Reuters reported monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. The monkeys did it by learning to control the a single brain cell. The result is "an important step forward," said Dawn Taylor, of Case Western Reserve University, who studies the concept of using brain signals to overcome paralysis. She wasn't involved in the new work. The device monitored the activity of a brain cell and used that as a cue to stimulate wrist muscles electrically. Researchers found it could even use brain cells that normally had nothing to do with wrist movement, said study co-author Chet Moritz. A large untapped pool of brain cells may be available for letting paralyzed people do things like grasping a coffee cup or brushing teeth, Moritz said. He stressed the approach is years, if not decades, away from use in people.
BOSTON - Colonoscopy is especially important for women because they’re more likely to have polyps or lesions deeper in the colon. Only colonoscopy sees the entire colon. Emptying its contents - called bowel prep - is essential to successful colonoscopy. There’s some reason to believe this bowel prep is harder for women than for men, reports Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Women are more likely to be constipated, so it may be more difficult to clear the bowel. Women are more likely than men to have irritable bowel syndrome, which can cause gas, bloating, and abdominal pain or spasm. Prep for a colonoscopy may be uncomfortable and time-consuming, but it needn’t be an ordeal. Watch suggests: Make sure you get instructions well before procedure date, and read completely. Arrange for the time and privacy you need to complete the prep. To make a bad-tasting liquid prep easier to swallow, add some Crystal Light or Kool-Aid powder (not red, blue, or purple); drink it chilled; drink it through a straw far back on your tongue; or hold a lemon slice under your nose while you drink the prep.
ST. LOUIS - Drugs used widely to treat type 2 diabetes may be more likely to keep working if used in moderation, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine nnoted in a study using an animal model. Sulfonylureas help type 2 diabetics make more insulin, aiding control of blood sugar levels. In most patients, the effects of sulfonylureas are lost after several years, causing insulin secretion to shut down. This forces patients to switch to insulin injections. "Why this happens isn't clear yet, but we've found what may be cause for hope," says senior author Dr. Colin G. Nichols, professor of cell biology and physiology. "We've shown in a mouse model that whatever causes this shutdown doesn't kill the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas or stop them from making insulin. Instead, it somehow stops them from secreting insulin." When they stopped receiving the drug, beta cells began secreting insulin again hours later. Nichols and co-author Dr. Maria Sara Remedi, instructor of cell biology and physiology, reported findings in Public Library of Science Medicine.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Like a sentry guarding castle walls, a molecular messenger in adult stem cells sounds the alarm as to invasion of cancer. The alarm halts cell division in its tracks, preventing an error that could lead to runaway cell division and tumor formation. "Our work suggests that to prevent abnormal cell proliferation, which could lead to cancer, stem cells developed this self-checking, what we're calling a checkpoint," said Yukiko Yamashita, of the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute. "If it looks like the cell is going to divide the wrong way, the checkpoint senses a problem and sends the signal: 'Don't divide!' " said Yamashita, a research assistant professor of life sciences and assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at the U-M medical school. If everything looks OK, the checkpoint allows adult stem-cell division, providing new cells to replace damaged and worn-out tissues. Yamashita and colleagues haven’t identified the molecules that form the checkpoint, but they've seen it work in adult stem cells of the fruit-fly, so-called germ-line stem cells. The findings were online at the journal /Nature.
MAINZ, GERMANY - COSMOS magazine disclosed scientists found hair turns grey with age due to a natural build-up of hydrogen peroxide (HP), which hinders the synthesis of melanin, our hair's natural pigment. Data online at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal yields a molecular explanation of why people face grey hair in old age - and could lead to a way of preventing it. "Not only blondes change their hair color with (HP)," said Gerald Weissmann, the journal's editor-in-chief. "All of our hair cells make a tiny bit of (HP), but as we get older, this little bit becomes a lot. We bleach our hair pigment from within, and our hair turns grey, then white." Authors of the study, from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and the University of Bradford (England), studied cell cultures of human hair follicles. "We now know the specific molecular dynamic that underlies this process," said biophysicist and co-author Heinz Decker. HP, a bleaching agent and metabolism by-product, accumulates due to a lack of the enzyme responsible for breaking it down. HP attacks an enzyme called tyrosinase, which starts output of melanin.
WHITE PLAINS, NY - HealthDay News noted four years ago, only about one in three U.S. babies was born in a state that required newborn screening for many conditions. By yearend 2008, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had laws or rules requiring newborn screening for at least 21 disorders, a study found. "The states have made outstanding progress expanding newborn screening," said Jennifer Howse, president of the March of Dimes (MoD), in the report. The tests check for genetic, metabolic, hormonal, and functional ills, MoD stated. Many disorders cause no visible symptoms in a baby until after damage, often permanent, is done. Some lead to mental retardation; others are fatal. The first test made available was for phenylketonuria (PKU), where the body can't process part of a protein called phenylalanine. This affects about one U.S. child in every 25,000, MoD figures. Left untreated, phenylalanine collects and can cause serious brain damage and mental retardation. Changes in diet can avoid these problems from occurring, but the diet must be started soon after birth and followed for the rest of the child's life to prevent brain damage. "Any time you can proactively identify a problem and treat it, you can avoid a lot of complications and lifelong consequences," said Dr. Jamie Grifo, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at New York University Langone Medical Center. "Hopefully, we'll have a national standard on newborn screening that will benefit all children."
KANSAS CITY, KS - HealthDay News noted that burning buildings might not be the only risks firefighters face. They seem to be more likely than peers in other professions to have prematurely-narrowed arteries, raising their risk for strokes and heart attacks, a study claims. In fact, 22% of 77 firefighters studied by the University of Kansas averaged 39 years old - with blood vessels of 52-year-olds due to significant plaque buildup in their carotid arteries. "These men, as young as they are, for some reason have a high rate of early vascular disease, asymptomatic as it is," said Dr. Patrick Moriarty, director of the Atherosclerosis and LDL Apheresis Center at the UK Medical Center and study leader. "What it means is we have to find a way to make their job have less potential (for) cardiovascular risk." Findings were presented at an American Heart Association conference on cardiovascular disease. Dr. Moriarty stated the stress of being on call for 48 hours, for instance, takes a toll on the body. Also, firefighters need high-calorie meals because, if they have to leave quickly to fight a fire, they might not have another meal for 24 hours.
HAIFA, ISRAEL – Reuters reported former Israeli paratrooper Radi Kaiof - paralyzed for 20 years - now walks with a dim mechanical hum. That’s an electronic exoskeleton moving his legs and propelling him forward as passersby stare in surprise. "I never dreamed I would walk again. After I was wounded, I forgot what it's like," says Kaiof, injured serving in the Israeli military in 1988. "Only when standing up can I feel how tall I really am and speak to people eye-to-eye." The device, ReWalk, is the brainchild of engineer Amit Goffer, founder of Argo Medical Technologies, a small Israeli company. Something of a mix between the exoskeleton of a crustacean and the suit worn by comic hero Iron Man, ReWalk helps paraplegics to stand, walk, and climb stairs. Goffer himself was paralyzed in an accident in 1997, but he can’t use his own invention because he doesn’t have full function of his arms. The system, which requires crutches to help with balance, consists of motorized leg supports, body sensors and a back pack containing a computerized control box and rechargeable batteries. The user picks a setting with a remote control wrist band - stand, sit, walk, descend, or climb - and leans forward, activating the body sensors and setting the robotic legs in motion.
IOWA CITY, IA - The Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa College of Law and Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute report President Obama’s signature on Jan. 29, 2009 of his first bill affects the entire workforce, including the disabled. The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act extends the time when an employee may cite discrimination. Toward the end of her 19-year career at Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co., Lily Ledbetter noted Goodyear paid her less than coworkers, and sued Goodyear. The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed the case for her failure to sue "within 180 days of the date Goodyear first paid her less than her peers." Then, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Act, creating a new incident of discrimination every time someone gets a smaller benefit due to a discriminatory act. Under the new law, Ms. Ledbetter would have a new claim every time she got her paycheck as it was reduced based on a discriminatory evaluation. (The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2009)
PHILADELPHIA - The talk about male sexual dysfunction has grown from a whisper to a roar. Erectile dysfunction, or ED, is no longer hush-hush. Non-stop ads convey help is just a prescription away, and as 35 million men in the U.S. have found a renewed sex life from the “little blue pill," Temple University urologist Dr. Jack Mydlo says men can improve performance without a doctor or drugstore. "The last thing I want them to do is take a pill and jump in bed because a certain part of the mechanism for erections is psychological. They have to be in the right mood, with the right person and take care of themselves" said Dr. Mydlo, professor and chair of the Dept. of Urology in the School of Medicine. Surprisingly, a good percentage of men who seek help aren’t in a relationship. "About 30% of the men who have a penile prosthesis don’t even have a partner," he said. "They’re putting the cart before the horse, so to speak, and think they’ll get a partner once they have the implant." He offers simple tips: Stop smoking, control cholesterol, cut back on fat. He suggests a visit to a urologist. "The truth is, if you don’t have a mental connection with your partner, everything will be for naught."
LONDON - HealthDay News noted a higher resting heart rate can raise risks of a heart attack in middle-aged women, a study found. "It's pretty well-established for men that higher heart rates are associated with a higher risk for heart attack," said Dr. Judith Hsia, lead author of a report in BMJ. "Until now, that data has been missing for women." The study used data on 129,135 postmenopausal women enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative. It found the 20% of women with heart rates of 76 beats a minute or greater had a 26% greater risk of a heart attack in a follow-up period of 7.8 years. "If you divided them into quintiles, there was no increased risk in the first four," said Dr. Hsia, a professor of medicine at George Washington University when she led the study and is with the drug firm AstraZeneca. "I would think of it in terms of a threshold." The added risk posed by a higher resting heart rate "isn’t as much as having a higher LDL cholesterol level, but still a good indicator," she said. Heart rate should be part of a physician's overall assessment of coronary risk in women as well as men, she said. "They would be doing a global assessment anyway, and this would be one more thing they would take into account," she said.
ATLANTA - The populations of 45 U.S. states grew fatter, making it harder for the U.S. to meet a 2010 target of reducing obesity to 15%, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) told Bloomberg News. Kentucky, Louisiana, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia were the only states where obesity was less prevalent last year than in 2005, CDC reported. It cited estimates derived from individuals' self- reported data. While Colorado had the lowest prevalence of obesity, 18.7%, its rate rose from 17.4% in 2005, researchers said. The proportion of U.S. adults who reported being obese in 2007 rose to a record 25.6%, covering about 54 million people. That's up 1.7% from two years earlier, researchers said. CDC officials said the survey shows the 2010 target, set in 2000 by public and private health groups, may be elusive, leaving millions at risk for heart disease and diabetes. "It's going to be a struggle to get down to 15%, particularly for the country as a whole," said Deborah Galuska, associate director/science at CDC's Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. CDC estimates actual obesity at 34% of the population, rather than the lower figure based on the survey.
TEL AVIV - People with a family history of cancerous brain tumors seem to be at higher risk for that kind of tumor versus those with no such history, states a study in the journal Neurology. Scientists studied medical records of 1,401 Utah residents with primary brain tumors. Family history was available for at least three generations for each person. The group had at least one of two types of tumors: glioblastomas or astrocytomas. Glioblastomas are a category of astrocytomas that are cancerous and usually fast-growing and deadly. Astrocytomas are less aggressive brain or spinal cord tumors. The study found people whose immediate relatives suffered glioblastomas had twice the risk of the same kind of brain cancer. People with immediate relatives who had astrocytomas were nearly four times more likely for the same kind of tumor versus people who didn’t have immediate relatives with the brain tumor. "Our study suggests people with a family history of brain tumors should make their doctor aware of this and tell them about any other risk factors they have," said study author Dr. Deborah Blumenthal, of the Sourasky Medical Center, and the Huntsman Cancer Institute at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
CLEVELAND - Reuters reported monkeys taught to play a computer game were able to overcome wrist paralysis with an experimental device that might lead to new treatments for patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. The monkeys did it by learning to control the a single brain cell. The result is "an important step forward," said Dawn Taylor, of Case Western Reserve University, who studies the concept of using brain signals to overcome paralysis. She wasn't involved in the new work. The device monitored the activity of a brain cell and used that as a cue to stimulate wrist muscles electrically. Researchers found it could even use brain cells that normally had nothing to do with wrist movement, said study co-author Chet Moritz. A large untapped pool of brain cells may be available for letting paralyzed people do things like grasping a coffee cup or brushing teeth, Moritz said. He stressed the approach is years, if not decades, away from use in people.
BOSTON - Colonoscopy is especially important for women because they’re more likely to have polyps or lesions deeper in the colon. Only colonoscopy sees the entire colon. Emptying its contents - called bowel prep - is essential to successful colonoscopy. There’s some reason to believe this bowel prep is harder for women than for men, reports Harvard Women’s Health Watch. Women are more likely to be constipated, so it may be more difficult to clear the bowel. Women are more likely than men to have irritable bowel syndrome, which can cause gas, bloating, and abdominal pain or spasm. Prep for a colonoscopy may be uncomfortable and time-consuming, but it needn’t be an ordeal. Watch suggests: Make sure you get instructions well before procedure date, and read completely. Arrange for the time and privacy you need to complete the prep. To make a bad-tasting liquid prep easier to swallow, add some Crystal Light or Kool-Aid powder (not red, blue, or purple); drink it chilled; drink it through a straw far back on your tongue; or hold a lemon slice under your nose while you drink the prep.
ST. LOUIS - Drugs used widely to treat type 2 diabetes may be more likely to keep working if used in moderation, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine nnoted in a study using an animal model. Sulfonylureas help type 2 diabetics make more insulin, aiding control of blood sugar levels. In most patients, the effects of sulfonylureas are lost after several years, causing insulin secretion to shut down. This forces patients to switch to insulin injections. "Why this happens isn't clear yet, but we've found what may be cause for hope," says senior author Dr. Colin G. Nichols, professor of cell biology and physiology. "We've shown in a mouse model that whatever causes this shutdown doesn't kill the insulin-making beta cells of the pancreas or stop them from making insulin. Instead, it somehow stops them from secreting insulin." When they stopped receiving the drug, beta cells began secreting insulin again hours later. Nichols and co-author Dr. Maria Sara Remedi, instructor of cell biology and physiology, reported findings in Public Library of Science Medicine.
ANN ARBOR, MI - Like a sentry guarding castle walls, a molecular messenger in adult stem cells sounds the alarm as to invasion of cancer. The alarm halts cell division in its tracks, preventing an error that could lead to runaway cell division and tumor formation. "Our work suggests that to prevent abnormal cell proliferation, which could lead to cancer, stem cells developed this self-checking, what we're calling a checkpoint," said Yukiko Yamashita, of the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Institute. "If it looks like the cell is going to divide the wrong way, the checkpoint senses a problem and sends the signal: 'Don't divide!' " said Yamashita, a research assistant professor of life sciences and assistant professor of cell and developmental biology at the U-M medical school. If everything looks OK, the checkpoint allows adult stem-cell division, providing new cells to replace damaged and worn-out tissues. Yamashita and colleagues haven’t identified the molecules that form the checkpoint, but they've seen it work in adult stem cells of the fruit-fly, so-called germ-line stem cells. The findings were online at the journal /Nature.
MAINZ, GERMANY - COSMOS magazine disclosed scientists found hair turns grey with age due to a natural build-up of hydrogen peroxide (HP), which hinders the synthesis of melanin, our hair's natural pigment. Data online at the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal yields a molecular explanation of why people face grey hair in old age - and could lead to a way of preventing it. "Not only blondes change their hair color with (HP)," said Gerald Weissmann, the journal's editor-in-chief. "All of our hair cells make a tiny bit of (HP), but as we get older, this little bit becomes a lot. We bleach our hair pigment from within, and our hair turns grey, then white." Authors of the study, from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, and the University of Bradford (England), studied cell cultures of human hair follicles. "We now know the specific molecular dynamic that underlies this process," said biophysicist and co-author Heinz Decker. HP, a bleaching agent and metabolism by-product, accumulates due to a lack of the enzyme responsible for breaking it down. HP attacks an enzyme called tyrosinase, which starts output of melanin.