Category Health/Medical

This image of cells that were made fluorescent shows how they are printed in complex structures for the purpose of producing tissue such as tendons and ligaments.
Credit: Robby Bowles/University of Utah College of Engineering

Scientists have developed a method to 3D print cells to produce human tissue such as ligaments and tendons to greatly improve a patient’s recovery. A person with a badly damaged ligament, tendon, or ruptured disc could simply have new replacement tissue printed and ultimately implanted in the damaged area.

“It will allow patients to receive replacement tissues without additional surgeries and without having to harvest tissue from other sites, which has its own source of problems,” says University of Utah biomedical engineering assistant professor Robby Bowles, who co-a...

Exclusion of S. aureus colonization by dietary Bacillus in a human population.

A new study from National Institutes of Health scientists and their Thai colleagues shows that a “good” bacterium commonly found in probiotic digestive supplements helps eliminate Staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria that can cause serious antibiotic-resistant infections. The researchers, led by scientists at NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), unexpectedly found that Bacillus bacteria prevented S. aureus bacteria from growing in the gut and nose of healthy individuals. Then, using a mouse study model, they identified exactly how that happens. Researchers from Mahidol University and Rajamangala University of Technology in Thailand collaborated on the project.

“Probiotics fre...

Therapeutic use of intermittent fasting for people with type 2 diabetes as an alternative to insulin. BMJ Case Reports, 2018; bcr-2017-221854 DOI: 10.1136/bcr-2017-221854

And cut out need for insulin while controlling blood glucose. Planned intermittent fasting may help to reverse type 2 diabetes, suggest doctors writing in the journal BMJ Case Reports after three patients in their care, who did this, were able to cut out the need for insulin treatment altogether.

Around 1 in 10 people in the US and Canada have type 2 diabetes, which is associated with other serious illness and early death. It is thought to cost the US economy alone US$245 billion a year.

Lifestyle changes are key to managing the disease, but by themselves can’t always control blood glucose levels, and while bariatric surg...

The wireless device naturally absorbs into the body after a week or two.
Credit: Northwestern University

Biodegradable implant provides electrical stimulation that speeds nerve regeneration. Researchers at Northwestern University and Washington University School of Medicine have developed the first example of a bioelectronic medicine: an implantable, biodegradable wireless device that speeds nerve regeneration and improves the healing of a damaged nerve.

The collaborators – materials scientists and engineers at Northwestern and neurosurgeons at Washington University – developed a device that delivers regular pulses of electricity to damaged peripheral nerves in rats after a surgical repair process, accelerating the regrowth of nerves in their legs and enhancing the ultimate recovery of musc...