SUNDAY - June 24, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

FDA Issues New Dietary Supplement Safety Rules.
After years of pressure from consumer advocates to do so, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced Friday that it was tightening up its oversight of dietary supplements. Firms that make vitamins, herbals and other supplements must now test their products to ensure they aren't contaminated and must include the ingredients listed on the label, FDA officials said. "This is a critical component of FDA's implementation of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education (DSHEA) act that was passed by congress in 1994," Robert E. Brackett, director of the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said during a late morning teleconference. And another advocacy group, Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports, was similarly unimpressed. "This new rule requires dietary supplement makers follow procedures to ensure that their products contain the type and amount of ingredients on the label. However, consumers still have no idea if a given product works, or whether it is dangerous," the group's senior counsel, Janell Mayo Duncan, said in a statement. The FDA's Brackett said that since the 1994 rule, supplement makers have been required to meet FDA standards set for food manufacturers. However, these new regulations are designed specifically for the supplement industry, he said. SOURCES: June 22, 2007, U.S. Food and Drug Administration teleconference with Robert E. Brackett, Ph.D., director, Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition; Vasilios Frankos, Ph.D., division director, Office of Dietary Supplements; June 22, 2007, statements, Consumers Union, Public Citizen, Council for Responsible Nutrition.

Stirrups-Free Pap Smear?
Women who know they should get regular Pap smears but dread the stirrups that go along with the test may finally get a reprieve. New research shows that Pap results are just as accurate when the screen is performed with the patient keeping her feet on the examining table. "There's about a 50 percent reduction in physical discomfort if women did not use the stirrups," said lead researcher Dr. Dean Seehusen, a family physician at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center at Fort Gordon, in Augusta, Ga. Women also said they felt psychologically less vulnerable, he said. "If a doctor can do without using the stirrups and you are more comfortable, by all means ask," said Dr. Celeste Robb-Nicholson, editor-in-chief of the Harvard Women's Health Watch and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Boston. "If this alternative is offered," she said, "it could result in higher screening rates" for pap smears. SOURCES: Dean Seehusen, M.D., M.P.H., family physician, Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Fort Gordon, Augusta, Ga.; Celeste Robb-Nicholson, M.D., editor-in-chief, Harvard Women's Health Watch and assistant professor, medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston; July 22, 2006, British Medical Journal.

Stem Cell and Gene Therapy Treatments:
A New Study Will Test Stem Cells Against Heart Attack.
In a first-of-a-kind study, patients who've recently had a major heart attack and are undergoing coronary bypass surgery will be injected with selected stem cells harvested from their own bone marrow. The study of 60 patients by researchers at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom will examine whether those stem cells can repair heart muscle cells damaged by heart attack. Specifically, the researchers want to determine if the stem cells can prevent late scar formation and the impaired heart contraction that can result from that scarring. "We have elected to use a very promising stem cell type selected from the patient's own bone marrow. This approach ensures no risk of rejection or infection. It also gets around the ethical issues that would result from use of stem cells from embryonic or fetal tissue," researcher Dr. Raimondo Ascione, consultant cardiac surgeon at the University of Bristol, said in a prepared statement. "Current treatments aim to keep the patient alive with a heart that is working less efficiently than before the heart attack. Cardiac stem cell therapy aims to repair the damaged heart, as it has the potential to replace the damaged tissue," Ascione said. In this study, all 60 patients will have bone marrow harvested before their bypass operation. During their surgery, either stem cells from their bone marrow or a placebo will be injected into the patients' hearts. The researchers will then compare out.

Could Gene Therapy Help Alcoholics Stay On the Wagon?
Aldehyde dehydrogenase is blocked by the drug disulfiram, also known as Antabuse, which is sometimes used to help alcoholics quit the habit. "But you have to take it every day, so there is a big problem with compliance," says Amalia Sapag at the University of Chile in Santiago. To provide a longer-lasting effect, Sapag's team engineered adenoviruses to carry an "antisense" version of the aldehyde dehydrogenase gene. This produces RNA that binds to the original gene's messenger RNA, blocking enzyme production. A single injection of viruses reduced the enzyme's activity in rats' livers by 80 per cent, Sapag revealed at the American Society of Gene Therapy meeting in Seattle earlier this month. Many people in east Asia react badly to alcohol because of mutations in the gene for aldehyde dehydrogenase. But these mutations also reduce the risk of succumbing to alcoholism by two-thirds or more.



SATURDAY - June 23, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Study May Set New Bar for Gestational Diabetes.
Pregnant women with high blood sugar levels may be at risk for some of the same problems faced by women with gestational diabetes - the risk of a Caesarean delivery and a big baby who might have health problems down the road, researchers said on Friday at the American Diabetes Association meeting in Chicago. Gestational diabetes - in which a woman who has never had diabetes loses her ability to use insulin properly during pregnancy - affects about 4 percent of all pregnant women. In the United States, there are about 135,000 cases of gestational diabetes each year. Treatment usually consists of diet and exercise. If left untreated, the mother can transfer extra blood sugar to the fetus, causing the fetus' pancreas to make extra insulin to handle the overload of sugar. This extra energy can produce large babies that may have trouble breathing at birth and could become obese as a child and develop diabetes in adulthood. Dr. Boyd Metzger of Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago found that the higher a woman's blood glucose got, the more likely the child was to be large, to be delivered by Caesarean section, to have low blood glucose needing treatment and to have high levels of insulin. The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the American Diabetes Association.

Morning Sickness Tied to Lower Breast Cancer Risk.
If there's any good news about morning sickness, this may be it. Women who experience nausea and vomiting during pregnancy may have a lower risk of breast cancer later in life, according to new research. Dr. Jo Freudenheim from the University at Buffalo in New York reported the finding this week in Boston, at the annual meeting of the Society for Epidemiologic Research. Freudenheim and her colleagues interviewed 1001 women with recently diagnosed breast cancer, ages 35 to 79, and 1917 "control" subjects matched to the case patients by age, race and county of residence. Several pregnancy-related factors - pregnancy-induced high blood pressure, preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and weight gain - were evaluated, but had no significant effect on future incidence of breast cancer. In contrast, pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting was associated with about a 30 percent lower risk of breast cancer. Greater severity and longer duration of the symptoms reduced the risk even further. Freudenheim cautioned, however, that this is an epidemiologic study, so the findings should not be "over-interpreted." Confirmation of their findings, she added, will require replication in other populations.

Autism Linked with Growth Hormones and Larger Head Size.
Boys with autism and related disorders had higher levels of growth hormones than other boys, which may explain why children with the condition often have larger heads and heavier builds, researchers reported on Friday. Other studies had already shown that children with autism have very rapid head growth in early life. Scientists at the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Cincinnati Children's Hospital worked together in reaching these findings. Writing in the journal Clinical Endocrinology, Dr. James Mills of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and colleagues said they compared the height, weight, head circumference and levels of growth-related hormones to growth and maturation in 71 boys with autism to a group of 59 healthy boys. The boys with autism had higher levels of two hormones that directly regulate growth - insulin-like growth factor-1 and IGF-2. The boys also had higher levels of hormones that indirectly affect growth. The boys with autism and those with autism spectrum disorders had a greater head circumference on average, weighed more and had a higher body mass index than the other boys, although there was no difference in height between the two groups of boys. Girls are much less likely to develop autism than boys, and the researchers were unable to recruit enough girls with autism to participate in the study.

Strictly Science:
Intact mitochondria migrate in membrane tubular network connections formed between human stem cells.
Mitochondrial transfer between eukaryotic animal cells is an idea that has intrigued scientists for awhile, but how such a transfer is accomplished was unknown. The goal of this paper was to examine several types of stem cells and to observe whether intact functional mitochondria do travel via intercellular connections. Time-lapse laser scanning confocal microscopy has shown that human amnion-derived stem cells as well as bone marrow derived mouse and human mesenchymal stem cells do form cell-to-cell connections via a tubular membrane network. The maximal length of these micrometer-thick tubes is around 180 ?m. Interestingly, freshly isolated amniotic epithelial stem cells did not form these connections, only after several passages when the morphology of the cells is significantly altered. Large area cell-cell contacts can be retained as long thin membrane bridges after the cells depart and de novo tube formation is also observed. Using MitoTracker red staining we observed that intact mitochondria are moving in these tubes by 20 – 60 nm/s velocity, suggesting that mitochondria can leave one cell via the membrane tubes and can enter into another cell. These results suggest that specific types of stem cells form comprehensive tubular networks among each other. One physiological role of these networks may be that mitochondria can migrate from one cell to the other, which may be a novel way of communication among stem cells. Please Site: Csordas, Attila, Cselenyák, Attila, Uher, Ferenc, Murányi, Marianna, Hennerbichler, Simone, Redl, Heinz, Kollai, Márk, and Lacza, Zsombor. Intact mitochondria migrate in membrane tubular network connections formed between human stem cells. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2007.44.1> (2007).



FRIDAY - June 22, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Check Your Sunscreen Before Going Out This Summer.
Visit then keep on file the Environmental Working Group (EWG) website for cosmetic safety. It records that eighty-four percent of 783 name-brand sunscreens tested not only offered inadequate protection from the sun, but contained at least one ingredient with "significant safety concerns." "Only 16 percent of the products on the market are both safe and effective, blocking both UVA and UVB radiation, remaining stable in sunlight, and containing few if any ingredients with significant known or suspected health hazards," the Wasington, D.C.-based group said in it's analysis. Ingredients contained in some of the sunscreens "release skin damaging free radicals in sunlight, some act like estrogen and could disrupt hormone systems, several are strongly linked to allergic reactions, and still others may build up in the body or the environment," the group warned.

Firstborn Children the Cleverest?
Firstborn children score significantly higher in IQ tests than their younger siblings, according to a large study of 250,000 military draftees in Norway. The researchers say the difference is due to social, not biological, factors, as younger siblings have higher IQs if they are raised as an eldest child following the death of an older brother or sister. The findings could suggest better ways of parenting the youngest children in a family. Firstborn men have, on average, an IQ that is about 2.3 points higher than those who are second-born. The trend continues such that second born men have higher IQs than their third-born brothers, and so on. A further review of about 600 families that included at least four children showed that the eldest sibling typically has an IQ that is 2.9 points higher than the fourth-born sibling. Journals: Science (DOI: 10.1126/science.1141493), Intelligence (DOI: 10.1016/j.intell.2007.01.004)

Two Gene Therapy Treatments Offers Parkinson's Relief.
While both are in early experimental stages, each takes a new approach to treating the devastating brain condition, which affects millions of people globally. Two studies published on Thursday offer new hope for Parkinson's disease - one using gene therapy to treat the symptoms and another investigating a drug that might stop the incurable disease in its tracks. In the gene therapy trial, Dr. Michael Kaplitt of New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and colleagues used a harmless virus called an adeno-associated virus to carry a new gene into the brains of 11 volunteers with advanced Parkinson's disease. They found it had no ill effects and appeared to reduce their symptoms, and the benefits lasted for four years in some. "These exciting results need to be validated in a larger trial, but we believe this is a milestone - not only for the treatment of Parkinson's disease, but for the use of gene-based therapies against neurological conditions generally," Kaplitt said in a statement. In this latest attempt to replace faulty genes or augment the activity of beneficial ones, the gene that was delivered to the Parkinson's patients controls production of an enzyme called GAD or glutamic acid decarboxylase. GAD controls a neurotransmitter or message-carrying chemical called GABA. GABA calms overactive neurons, and its production is lost in Parkinson's. This helps cause some of the jittery and shaky movements that mark the disease. . Published: Lancet medical journal.

In another study, published in the journal Science, a team at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School said they had designed a drug that can protect the neurons damaged in Parkinson's disease. The drug blocks the action of an enzyme called SIRT2, a member of a group of enzymes called sirtuins, which are involved in the aging process. "By inhibiting SIRT2 we protect neurons from cell death," Aleksey Kazantsev, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. The researchers are also testing their approach in other brain diseases, including Huntington's and Alzheimer's. Current drug treatments for Parkinson's all eventually stop working. Electronic stimulation is still experimental, although it may help, and researchers are also testing ways to transplant new brain cells into patients.

An Ancient Viral Battle Left People Vulnerable to HIV.
A battle won by human ancestors against a virus that infected chimpanzees and other primates millions of years ago may have left people today more vulnerable to the AIDS virus, scientists said on Thursday. That ancient battle helped humans evolve and rely on a gene that may not protect so well against a modern retrovirus, the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, the researchers said. "Events that happened millions of years ago have shaped human evolution, in particular susceptibility to modern human infectious diseases," Michael Emerman of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, who led the study, said in a telephone interview. There is genetic evidence that the PtERV1 virus infected chimpanzees, gorillas and old-world monkeys about 4 million years ago, but no evidence it infected humans. The virus is believed to have gone extinct perhaps 2 million years ago. Other researchers found remnants of the PtERV1 retrovirus in the genomes of chimpanzees, gorillas and some other primates in Africa, but not humans or another great ape, the orangutan. When the chimpanzee genome was mapped, a major difference compared to the human genome was the presence of about 130 copies of PtERV1 in chimpanzees and zero in people. The retrovirus is so mutated in living chimps that it is inactivated, the researchers said. While the study sheds light on the historical human susceptibility to pathogens, Emerman said, it does not appear to provide immediate clues as to how to beat HIV.



THURSDAY - June 21, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Motherhood Evaluated After Age 50.
A recent study challenges the idea of moms over 50 not being up to the task. The data collected does not support the idea that advanced maternal age mothers have reduced parenting capacity due to physical or mental ability or parenting stress. Women in their 50s showed a nonsignificant trend toward lower physical functioning scores compared with women in their 30s, but higher mental functioning scores. The percentage of subjects with high parenting stress varied between the groups but was not highest in the oldest (30s = 0%, 40s = 22%, and 50s = 6% parenting stress). Source: Fertility & Sterility, Volume 87, Issue 6, Pages 1327-1332 (June 2007).

Combating Infectious Disease With Probiotics.
Scientists at University College Cork are the first to discover mechanism by which probiotic bacteria can protect against bacterial infection. The APC, funded by Science Foundation Ireland, was set up investigate the beneficial roles of the bacteria found in the gastro-intestine of healthy humans. The research group examined a range of beneficial bacteria and found one specific probiotic bacterium (Lactobacillus salivarius UCC118) which was able to kill Listeria monocytogenes, an often lethal pathogen in pregnant women. The probiotic kills the pathogen by producing an antibiotic-like compound called a bacteriocin. Tests showed that Lactobacillus salivarius offered significant protection against Listeria infection but that a strain of non-bacteriocin producing Lactobacillus generated by the researchers did not. The results of the UCC work clearly demonstrate a role for bacteriocins in protecting the host against potentially lethal infections. The study is the first to clearly demonstrate a mechanism by which probiotic bacteria may act to help improve the health of consumers. The results may prove to be very significant, in that Listeria monocytogenes is particularly dangerous during pregnancy, and in a number of other high risk groups, but is too rare to warrant vaccination or preventative antibiotic therapy. A probiotic taken during pregnancy could well provide protection against Listeria infection in a form which would be acceptable to expectant mothers. Reference: Corr et al., (2007) Proceeding National Academy Science (PNAS) USA May 1 2007 vol 104 no. 18 , 7617-7621 "Bacteriocin production as a mechanism for the antiinfective activity of Lactobacillus salivarius" UCC118.

Fetal and Neonatal Nicotine: Identifying Critical Exposure Times.
Nicotine exposure during fetal development and lactation impaired the ability of adult rats to control glucose levels. The rats, born to mothers given nicotine levels similar to those encountered by moderate smokers, had fewer insulin making cells in the pancreas. The effects resemble those associated with type 2 diabetes in humans. The study is important because it provides another reason to quit smoking during pregnancy and adds information about the safety of using nicotine replacement therapy during pregnancy. As adult rats, all of the nicotine exposed pups had similar levels of glucose and insulin in the mornings (called basal levels). However, after being given the glucose tolerance test, animals with fetal and neonatal nicotine exposure had higher total glucose levels compared to the controls. Those exposed during development and as newborns also could not clear the glucose up to 2 hours after the sugar challenge. The same animals had fewer beta cells in their pancreas because of increased cell death. Many women quit smoking during pregnancy by starting nicotine-patch therapy. However, nicotine from this smoke-free source still enters the mother’s blood and can affect fetal development as observed in this study. Source: the journal of Pediatrics 108:776-789.

Survey Confirms Parental Support of Embryos in Stem Cell Work.
About 60 percent of people with frozen embryos stored at U.S. fertility clinics would be willing to donate them for use in human stem cell research, according to a survey released on Wednesday. These embryos are created at fertility clinics for in vitro fertilization procedures to help infertile couples have babies. Typically, more embryos are created than are needed, and many are simply destroyed with permission of the donors after the donors no longer want them. Sixty percent of 1,020 people who have embryos stored at nine fertility centers, were willing to donate their frozen embryos for use in stem cell research, as reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science. About 28 percent said they would be willing to donate embryos to improve cloning techniques for medical science. Only 22 percent of those surveyed were willing to donate the embryos to other couples for adoption to make babies.

Blood Stem Cells May Boost Immune System.
A new method of increasing blood stem cells could one day promote quicker recovery of immune system function in patients who've undergone chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers, researchers at Children's Hospital Boston say. Blood stem cells have the capability to develop into assorted types of blood cells. In experiments with zebrafish, the researchers at Children's Hospital Boston demonstrated that a stable analog of prostaglandin can enhance production of blood stem cells, both during embryonic development and after the blood-forming system has been damaged. The finding about dmPGE2 - a long-acting derivative of prostaglandin E2 - marks the first time that stem cell production has been induced by a small molecule drug, said study senior author Dr. Leonard Zon of the hospital's Stem Cell Program and Division of Hematology/Oncology. A clinical trial, expected to begin in 2008, will include leukemia patients receiving cord blood transplants. Some of the cord blood the patients receive to replenish their blood systems will be treated with dmPGE2. Results of the new study are published in the June 21 issue of the journal Nature.

Nano "Knitting" Restores Vision in Test Animals.
Neuroscientist Rutledge Ellis-Behnke and colleagues have discovered a way to use microscopic nano-fiber to help nerves grow back across gaps in brain tissue and reconnect areas of the brain. This special nano-fiber is made up of a short string of proteins. It can self-assemble - that is, it can build itself - under special conditions. Ellis-Behnke and his team have been using this technique to restore sight in hamsters. The researchers severed the optical nerve tract in hamsters’ brains, causing them to go blind. To help the nerve re-grow, it was coated with a liquid containing microscopic particles that self-assembled into a lattice of nano-fibers. "It almost looks like it’s re-knitted itself back together, almost like you would darn socks or fix a sweater." says Ellis-Behnke. He’s hopeful that this technique could one day be used to help restore quality of life for the millions of victims of stroke and traumatic brain injuries. Source: the National Science Foundation.

Common Adenovirus Virus Pitted Against Cancer.
With nearly $1 million in government funding, University of Rochester scientists are testing a new innovation in biotherapy by altering a common childhood respiratory virus, the adenovirus, to destroy cancer cells. Exploring the potential of biotherapy through oncolytic adenoviruses is a hot area in cancer research. The approach is analogous to the police employing a snitch to reach the bad guys: For years scientists have been engineering relatively benign viruses to selectively infiltrate and deliver genetic materials into more dangerous cells. However, the current generation of mutant viruses under study has limitations. So far, they are proving to be effective only in tumor cells that express certain proteins. The Rochester group designed an entirely new version of the adenovirus that might have broader, more powerful potential. The first experiments will be on pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest malignancies. "Our concept is very promising and we hope it will open the door to safer and more effective treatments," said Baek Kim, Ph.D., associate professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Rochester Medical Center and study co-investigator. "If this works, the most exciting part is that patients would be able to generate their own internal weapons to kill the malignant cells without having to endure a toxic element such as chemotherapy." The National Cancer Institute and the U.S. Department of Defense is funding the research.



WEDNESDAY - June 20, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

When To Turn Breech Babies.
An international study led by Eileen Hutton, assistant dean of midwifery at McMaster University, aims to determine if a manual procedure to turn breech babies in the uterus can result in fewer births by caesarean section. A fetus is in breech position - with their feet, instead of their heads, towards the pelvis - in about one in every 25 to 30 full-term births. Although breech babies can be delivered by vaginal birth, most care providers recommend caesarean delivery. A procedure called external cephalic version (ECV), in which a doctor or midwife uses their hands to manipulate the mother's abdomen and help the baby turn in a somersault-like motion, is recommended for women whose babies are in breech position at 37 weeks gestation. The procedure is successful in turning the baby in about 30 per cent of first-time moms, and 58 per cent of subsequent pregnancies. "This is the first trial of its type, in which the timing of ECV is being studied," said Hutton, principal investigator of the trial, which involves about 20 countries and is funded by a $2.8 million grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. "Although ECV is recommended for breech presentations at full-term, the success rate is not particularly good. We're hoping to determine if performing the procedure earlier, results in better outcomes." The study began early in 2005, and is expected to be completed in another year. For more information about the trial, click here.

Babies 'Smoke' When Parents Do, Study Confirms.
Babies with at least one parent who smokes have five times as much cotinine, a nicotine byproduct, in their urine than infants whose parents are non-smokers, UK researchers report. "Our findings clearly show that by accumulating cotinine, babies become heavy passive smokers secondary to the active smoking of parents," Dr. Mike Wailoo of the University of Leicester and colleagues write in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. "This is the first time we've got direct information on the effect of smoking in homes on babies," Wailoo told Reuters Health. "It clarifies and I think it firms up information that we all thought we had." He added that cotinine is just one of thousands of potentially harmful nicotine byproducts that can accumulate in infants' bodies. Parental smoking is a leading risk factor for sudden infant death syndrome, Wailoo and his colleagues note in their report. To better understand how harmful products of cigarette smoke might accumulate in babies' bodies, the researchers measured the amount of cotinine in the urine of 104 12-week-olds, 71 of whom had parents who smoked. On average, children with at least one smoking parent had 5.58 times as much cotinine in their urine as babies living in non-smoking homes.

A Stillbirth May Signal Risks For the Mother.
A study from Israel indicates that women who have had a stillborn child are at greater risk of dying over the subsequent decades than women who've had only live-born babies. The researchers linked data from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study, a database of all births to residents of western Jerusalem, to the Israeli Population Registry in order to follow mothers who gave birth at least twice between 1964 and 1976. They compared the survival of 595 women who had at least one stillbirth with that of 24,523 women who had only live births. Women who had stillbirths were more likely to have heart disease, type 1 diabetes, or other medical conditions before they became pregnant, the team reports. They were also more likely to develop high blood pressure, diabetes, and placental disorders during pregnancy. During an average follow-up of 36.5 years, 78 (13 percent) mothers who had a stillborn child died compared with 1518 (6.2 percent) of those without any stillbirths. The risk of dying in that period remained 40 percent higher for mothers of stillborn babies even after accounting for age and socioeconomic status. Further research is needed in order to determine "whether this is a universal phenomenon or one that is specific to certain ethnic groups." Source: Obstetrics and Gynecology, June 2007.

Secrets of Chormosomes Movements, St. Jude's Study.
Investigators at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have used the lowly yeast to gain insights into how a dividing human cell ensures an identical set of chromosomes gets passed on to each new daughter cell. Errors in this critical part of cell division can cause one daughter cell to get extra copies of some chromosomes that should have moved into the other, or no copies of other chromosomes - a problem that is prevalent in cancer and can cause miscarriages or conditions such as Down syndrome. St. Jude researchers made their discovery by tracking the activity of a small army of molecules with exotic names like argonaute (Ago1) and dicer; these molecules help maintain a specialized, tightly packaged form of DNA called heterochromatin at the part of the chromosome called the centromere. The investigators also showed the order in which certain critical events occur in setting up and maintaining heterochromatin. The work is important because it gives scientists insight into how each daughter cell receives the normal number of chromosomes; and it offers important clues to understanding the genetic cause of certain catastrophic diseases. "Until we did this study, it was virtually impossible to figure out which molecular events were specifically required for the two different processes of establishing and maintaining centromeric heterochromatin," said Janet Partridge, Ph.D., assistant member of the St. Jude Department of Biochemistry. "Now we have the tools to ask what is required for the cell to perform each task. This has important implications not just for understanding how centromeric heterochromatin assembles, but also for learning how heterochromatin forms elsewhere on the chromosome, a process that is often disturbed in cancer." A report on this work appeared in the journal Molecular Cell.

Stem Cell Line Created From Unusable Egg.
Scientists at Roslin Cells Ltd, a spin out company established in 2006 by Roslin Institute, have created a new stem cell line from a clinically unusable human egg in a development that could have major implications for research into illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, liver disease and diabetes. Speaking at the Annual Meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research in Australia, Dr Paul De Sousa, Roslin Cells’ chief scientific officer, said: "My team at Roslin Cells has been working with colleagues at the Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals Trust and the University of Manchester, to develop techniques to stimulate these [unusable human] eggs so that the cells divide and develop. Shortly after this process starts, we are able to extract embryonic stem cells. The new cell line which we have produced in this way, demonstrates that an embryonic stem cells can be produced from tissue which was previously not considered of use to stem cell research." The £59 million Scottish Centre for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM) will be home to the largest grouping of stem cell researchers in the UK. It comprises more than 20 research groups and brings together scientists from the University's Institute for Stem Cell Research, and clinical researchers based on the medical school campus. The SCRM has attracted world class expertise to work towards medical therapies for diseases such as motor neuron disease, cancer, liver disease, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and spinal cord injury. .


Weighty News:
Pre-Diabetic Changes Double Heart Disease Risk.
Even the very earliest signs of diabetes can increase the risk of dying from heart disease, a new Australian study says. The findings mean that many more people may be in danger from the complications of diabetes -- even before they are diagnosed with the blood sugar illness. "This study further increases our awareness of the importance of diabetes as a risk factor, not only full-blown diabetes but also people that simply have impaired glucose tolerance," said Dr. Gregory Dehmer, professor of internal medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and director of the cardiology division at Scott & White Hospital in Temple, Texas. For this study, researchers followed 10,429 people participating in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle Study for just over five years. After five years, people who had diabetes had a 2.6 times higher risk of dying from cardiac problems than healthy people. Those with impaired fasting glucose (considered "pre-diabetes") had a 2.5 times higher risk. "It's a really important wake-up call," added Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum, director of women and heart disease at Lenox Hill Hospital. "Now you don't even need to have diabetes, you can have pre-diabetes and be equally at risk for cardiovascular disease."

Study Finds Staggering Cost of Treating Diabetics.
One out of every eight U.S. federal health care dollars is spent treating people with diabetes, and advocates are calling for the creation of a government post to oversee coordination of spending on treatment and prevention among federal agencies. The National Changing Diabetes Program (NCDP) study was being released at a briefing with the Congressional Diabetes Caucus on Tuesday. The study, conducted by Mathematica Policy Research for NCDP - a coalition of diabetes thought leaders, including physician organizations and disease advocacy groups -- included all federally-funded programs that have an impact on diabetes prevention and treatment. The study, based on federal spending data from 2005, looked at various government health programs to determine how much was spent on diabetics versus non diabetics. It found it cost the U.S. government $79.7 billion more to treat people with the disease, or some 12 percent of the $645 billion in total federal health care spending projected that year. "Often we think about diabetes only residing with the Department of Health and Human Services," said Dana Haza, senior director of NCDP, which is funded by Denmark's Novo Nordisk, one of world's largest sellers of insulin and diabetes products. "But when you look at the findings of this study, actually 18 of 21 federal agencies have a budgetary influence impact on diabetes," she said, noting agencies that deal with veterans, prisoners, school lunch programs and food stamps as examples. "Coordinating America's response to diabetes should be mandatory," said Lana Vukovljak, CEO of American Association of Diabetes Educators. "Over the next 30 years, diabetes is expected to claim the lives of 62 million Americans. Surely this health crisis warrants the appointment of a manager charged with aligning budgets and programs for diabetes at the federal level."

Mice Without Interleukin-18 Quickly Get Fat.
A piece of the body's immune system might also help dampen appetite and help people lose weight, research in mice suggests. In the bigger picture, however, "we're really gaining a sense that there are molecules in the immune system that regulate appetite," said study lead author Eric Zorrilla, an assistant professor at The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego. Interleukin-18, an active part of the immune system. Zorrilla's team was studying this protein when they noticed that something unusual occurred in mice genetically engineered to lack the protein: They got fat. He said that researchers are years away from creating a drug that they could use on people. For now, Zorrilla said, "we're trying to understand the neurobiology of (the molecule), where in the brain it's acting. That would help us understand what side effects it might have."


TUESDAY - June 19, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

Having a Male Twin Reduces Female Twin's Fertility.
A study of Finnish church birth records of twins dated from 1734 to 1888 showed that women were 25 percent less likely to have children if their twin was a male. Those who did have children gave birth to an average of two fewer babies than women who had a twin sister. Based on an analysis of 18th and 19th century data, researchers found women who had a male twin also were 15 percent less likely to get married, Virpi Lummaa of the University of Sheffield in Britain and Finland's University of Turku and colleagues conducted the work. Researchers have long known that fetuses are influenced by hormones in the womb. Because male and female fetuses have similar levels of the "female" hormone estrogen, girl twins are more likely to be affected by testosterone in the womb. Also, exposure to elevated levels of testosterone during development can promote diseases that compromise fertility, such as reproductive cancers.

Amyloid Precursor Protein May Cause Sudden Infant Death.
Amyloid Precursor Protein may cause Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, and scientists in Australia. The researchers will look for the presence of APP, which accumulates in the brain when neurons are damaged. If they find it, the scientists said the discovery will help them understand the cause of SIDS, but they cautioned a cure and a predictive diagnostic test are still in the future. The research will be led by Roger Byard of the University of Adelaide in Australia and will involve analysis of brain tissue from 200 children who died of SIDS. Byard said researchers now believe that SIDS is not just one problem but can be triggered by a variety of different factors to which predisposed infants react.

Culturing Stem Cells From Human Fat.
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers have isolated and cultured human hematopoietic stem cells from fat, or adipose, tissue, suggesting a new source of cells for reconstituting the bone marrow of patients undergoing intensive radiation therapy for blood cancers. "We took cells from the stromal vascular fraction of normal adipose tissue and basically gave them bone marrow food to see what would happen," said study leader Professor Albert Donnenberg. "We were able to culture a variety of hematopoietic cells, including blood progenitor cells." Presented last week in Toronto meeting of the North American chapter of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society.

A Switch for Metasteses?
Although metastases are what make most cancers lethal, the majority of migrating cancer cells don’t survive once they leave the primary tumor. How, then, do some cancer cells colonize organs of the body far from the site of the original cancer and not only survive but proliferate? A study by a graduate student in the laboratory of Alan Wells, M.D., professor of pathology, University of Pittsburgh School, has found evidence that once migrating tumor cells reach the site of a possible metastasis, they turn back on a critical gene that had been turned off when the cells first became cancerous. Turning it off enables the cells to escape their tissue of origin and travel throughout the body. Turning it back on once settled at the site of metastasis allows these same cells to proliferate and continue to spread. Presented on April 28 at Experimental Biology 2007 in Washington, DC.

Human Cloning Closer Than Ever Before!
When Shoukhart Mitalipov ended his unscheduled talk at the end of Monday’s session of the 5th International Society for Stem Cell Research Meeting held in Cairns, Australia, this week, there were audible gasps and exclamations of "wow!" from the audience. Mitalipov talked of his latest potentially groundbreaking discovery: an efficient and reliable method for cloning primate embryos from adult cells. The technique brings scientists closer than ever before to producing human embryonic stem cells from cloned adult body cells. Producing such stem cells from a person's own body tissue would make it possible to sidestep the problem of rejection inherent in using stem cells from other sources. The development also brings experts the closest they've been to cloning a full-term adult primate, such as a human.

In a world first, Mitalipov of the Oregon National Primate Research Centre in Beaverton, USA, provided evidence that he had successfully achieved somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT) in a primate. This means he managed to clone a rhesus monkey embryo from adult cells. Previously it has proved impossible to derive embryonic cells from adult cells in primates. He then went on to derive two batches of embryonic stem cells from the cloned embryo. “We’ve been looking for this evidence for a long time,” said Alan Trounson who heads the Monash Immunology and Stem Cell laboratory at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Cloning from adult cells has been achieved in many species, such as mice, but primates seemed to present an insurmountable barrier. Disgraced Korean 'stem cell king' Woo Sook Hwang failed to achieve the technique even through he had access to over two thousand human eggs.

How he did it
Using skin cells from a ten year old male rhesus monkey, Natalipov generated cloned embryos and ultimately two lines of embryonic stem cells, which he has given the acronym CRES, for cloned rhesus embryonic stem cells. The cell lines also seemed to pass preliminary tests for bone fide embryonic stem cells. They stained positive for the canonical simian embryonic stem markers: Oct-4 , SSEA4, TRA1-60 and TRa-1-80 – which are proteins only produced by stem cells. And as Natalipov dramatically demonstrated in his presentation with a slide of beating cells, the CRES cells passed another test of stem cells and where able to transform into either throbbing heart cells or neurons. They also formed teratomas – cancers that produce different types of tissues – when injected into mouse testis, just as other stem cells do. However, when Irving Weissman, a developmental biologist of Stanford University in California, asked whether the cells had yet been tested for their ability to contribute to a monkey chimaera – an embryo made by mixing stem cells with cells of another embryo – Natalipov, replied in the negative. The chimaera is used as another definitive verification of stem cells.

"Beautiful work"
Natalipov believes that standard cloning techniques of using a dye and UV light, have been the reason why experts have had such little luck in cloning adult primate cells before now. Natalipov’s alternative technique visualizes an egg's chromosomes without the dye or UV light, but using polarized light to detect fibres that carry the chromosomes. He details the technique in the June 11 edition of the journal Human Reproduction. Until it is repeated by other experts, caution is warranted, comments Monash University's Trounson. “Nevertheless, this is a beautiful work, really well done,” says Megan Munsie of the Australian Stem Cell Centre, in Melbourne and the first person ever to clone mouse embryos from adult stem cells.

Worth Repeating:
Woman's Own Stem Cells May Treat Urinary Incontinence.
In the first clinical study of its kind in North America, women with stress urinary incontinence (SUI) were treated using muscle-derived stem cell injections to strengthen deficient sphincter muscles responsible for the condition. Results of the study, led by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine  and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, suggest that the approach is safe, improves patients’ quality of life and may be an effective treatment for SUI. The findings will be presented at an experts’ session at the annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Atlanta, and will be published in abstract 1185 in the AUA proceedings. A follow-up multi-site study set to launch this summer will allow researchers to determine the optimal dose of muscle stem cells needed to effectively treat SUI. Published May 21, 2006.


MONDAY - June 18, 2007---------------------------------Previous News Archive/ Return to Today's News Alerts

PGD Embryonic Gene Screening Safe for Babies.
Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) - in which doctors remove a cell from three-day-old embryos to look for genetic disease - appears to pose no harm to babies, Belgian researchers report. Scientists at Brussels' Free University say that 563 of the 583 babies in the study that underwent PGD were born alive - a rate that matches that of conventional IVF or another fertility procedure called ICSI, where sperm is injected into the egg. PGD babies also had comparable birth weights to infants who did not receive the procedure, and the rate of birth defects or malformations was also similar between PGD, IVF and ICSI children at two months and two years of age. The findings were published at a meeting of the European Society of Human Genetics. People with this mirror-touch capability were faster when the touch they saw was in the same location as actual touch.

Noninvasive Screening Early Reduces Down's Births By 50%.
Non-invasive screening of pregnant women with ultrasound early in pregnancy, combined with maternal blood analysis, has reduced the number of children born in Denmark with Down Syndrome by 50%, a scientist will tell the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics today. Professor Karen Brøndum-Nielsen, of the Kennedy Institute, Glostrup, Denmark, said that another benefit of the introduction of this procedure in her country was a drop in the number of invasive pre-natal diagnostic procedures from 11% to approximately 6% of pregnancies. The women were offered a measurement of nuchal translucency in the fetus by ultrasound. This test looks at thickness of the black space (fluid) in the neck area of the fetus. If there is more than the normal amount of fluid the risk of Down syndrome is increased. Likewise if there is a certain combination of serum markers in the maternal blood test, taken at the same time, there is the possibility of an increased risk of a chromosomal abnormality. The combined screening is carried out at 11 to 14 weeks of gestation. .

US Umbilical Cord Stem Cell Transplant Successful for UK Child.
Eva Winston-Hart, 3 years old, of Market Harborough in the UK, had a lifesaving treatment last month after she was diagnosed with leukaemia. Her rare chromosome defect meant that more than 11 million donors were searched before a suitable match was found from an umbilical cord in America. Thursday, June 14th, consultants at Birmingham Children’s Hospital gave her family the news they had all been waiting for - new, healthy cells had taken the place of all of Eva’s cells, including the cancerous ones. Mrs Winston said she will continue to campaign for the donation of umbilical cords for stem cell transplant given this remarkable experience of trans-continental stem cell exchange. Source: Northants Evening Telegraph.

The Roots of Empathy?
Is empathy measureable or quantifiable? Researchers at University College London have now studied 10 people with the same condition - people who experience a tactile sense of touch when they see another person being touched - something called mirror-touch synesthesia. First studied in 2005 in one person, now 10 people with the same condition have been studied for this report. Previous studies have suggested a link between empathy and mirror systems, but Dr. Jamie Ward, who led the research team, said this was the first to suggest empathy involves more than one mechanism: A) an emotional gut reaction - which appears exaggerated in the mirror-touch synesthetes - and B) a cognitive process that involves thinking about how someone else feels. "It suggests there is a link between certain aspects of the tactile system and empathy," said Michael Banissy of the university's department of psychology, whose work appears in the journal Nature Neuroscience.

Mild Sleep Loss Affects Children's Speech.
Sleep restriction can alter children's initial stages of speech perception, which could contribute to disruptions in cognitive and linguistic functioning , skills necessary for reading and language development and comprehension, according to a research abstract presented at SLEEP 2007, the 21st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies (APSS). "Our research has shown that even minor sleep loss of one hour less per night for seven nights contributes to disruptions in neurocognitive functioning," said Rachel Waford, of the University of Louisville, who authored the study of 32 children six-to-seven years of age while they listened to the following computer-generated speech syllables: /ba/, /da/ and /ga/. "The early school years are crucial windows that determine future learning. Therefore, it is imperative that children in this age range are well-rested to prepare for the demands of the school day."

Controlling Inflammation In Bacterial Meningitis.
Pneumococcal meningitis involves inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord and is caused by infection with the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae. The observed swelling of the brain is largely the result of the excessive immune response to infection. The tumor necrosis factor - related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been previously reported to play a role in the regulation of the host immune response. In the current study, Joerg Weber and colleagues at the Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany, administered components of Streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria to the cerebrospinal fluid bathing the brain and spinal cord of mice lacking TRAIL. They found that these animals suffered from increased inflammation and brain cell death, however these effects were reversed by the administration of recombinant TRAIL (rTRAIL). This study provides evidence that TRAIL acts to limit inflammation of the brain and spinal cord during bacterial meningitis, suggesting that it may be of use as an anti-inflammatory agent in invasive bacterial infections. Reference: "TRAIL limits excessive host immune responses in bacterial meningitis" June 14 oniine, July print issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Banding Together: RAS Signaling Of Circadian Output.
Drs. Jay Dunlap and Jennifer Loros, with colleagues at Dartmouth Medical School, have finally cloned the band gene of the fungus Neurospora crassa, and found that it is an allele of the ras-1 gene. This finding suggests RAS signaling is a key mediator of circadian output. Researchers are now realizing what protein is encoded by the band gene, and how disruption in the band gene affects the circadian rhythms of this fungus. The band mutation is a dominant point mutation in the ras-1 gene causing a slight increase in GTP exchange, and therefore slightly higher activity levels. Says Dunlap, "Understanding the molecular nature of band makes us all look at output from the circadian clock in a different and clearer way. It's been a long time coming." Published in the June 15th issue of G&D.