Health and Medicine

Findings Show The Force of Blood Flow Has Anti-Inflammatory Effect

Scientists have found a new way in which exercise may protect against heart disease. Increased blood flow can mimic the powerful anti-inflammatory actions of certain glucocorticoid steroid drugs, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute for Medicine and Engineering. The researchers discovered that an increase in shear stress – the drag force exerted by blood flowing over endothelial

A vaccine aimed against AIDS, developed at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, the Emory Vaccine Center, and the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), will begin a Phase I clinical trial this week.

A total of 30 human volunteers will be enrolled at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Washington in Seattle, and the San Francisco Departmen

Stress at work and fatigue increase the chance of acute infections such as common colds, flu-like illnesses and gastroenteritis. This was discovered in research carried out by Danielle Mohren at Maastricht University, in which more than 8000 employees from various companies were followed over a three-year period.

The study revealed that employees in highly demanding jobs suffered from colds 20 percent more often than employees in less demanding positions. Also job insecurity, for example as

Vessel wall cells and blood cells have been found to release cell particles which can damage blood vessels. This was demonstrated in laboratory experiments carried out by Marja van Wijk during her doctoral research at the University of Amsterdam. Poorly functioning blood vessels play a role in pre-eclampsia.

For her research (conducted at the Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam) Van Wijk isolated blood vessels from pieces of tissue taken from pregnant women. She placed the blood

Employing high-tech, digital X-ray microtomography (microCT), Northwestern University scientists have discovered the way in which newts form new bone and cartilage during limb regeneration. Newts are a type of salamander, the only vertebrates capable of rebuilding lost structures such as limbs throughout their lifetimes.

Reporting in the January issue of Developmental Dynamics, Northwestern researchers Hans-Georg Simon and Stuart Stock showed that bone formation in a regenerated forelimb co

UF researchers report: Immunosuppressant drug prevents late rejection of transplanted kidneys

A drug that suppresses the immune system and prolongs the survival of donated kidneys in patients in the first months after transplantation also has the ability to block organ rejection over the long haul, University of Florida researchers have found.

The drug, mycophenolate mofetil, has been shown to decrease acute rejection by 50 percent compared with an older agent commonly used,