Category Health/Medical

This is a mouse colon from Cyp1a reporter mice after feeding with I3C.
Credit: Chris Schiering, Francis Crick Institute

Chemicals produced by vegetables such as kale, cabbage and broccoli could help to maintain a healthy gut and prevent colon cancer, a new study from the Francis Crick Institute shows. The research, published in Immunity, shows that mice fed on a diet rich in indole-3-carbinol – which is produced when we digest vegetables from the Brassica genus – were protected from gut inflammation and colon cancer.

While the health benefits of vegetables are well-established, many of the mechanisms behind them remain unknown...

Researchers at Duke Cancer Institute have tracked the missing T-cells in glioblastoma patients in the bone marrow, locked away and unable to function because of a process the brain stimulates in response to glioblastoma, to other tumors that metastasize in the brain and even to injury.
Credit: Alisa Weigandt for Duke Health

A mysterious lack of T-cells has hindered the immune system’s ability to fight glioblastoma. Researchers have tracked the missing T-cells in glioblastoma patients. They found them in abundance in the bone marrow, locked away and unable to function because of a process the brain stimulates in response to glioblastoma, to other tumors that metastasize in the brain and even to injury.

Glioblastoma brain tumors can have an unusual effect on the body’s immune system, often ca...

These are extracellular vesicles under the electron microscope. Credit: Helmholtz Zentrum München

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is an incurable lung disease of unknown origin with limited treatment options. Research suggests that the signaling molecule WNT5A plays a key role in the pathogenic process. Now a group of scientists from Helmholtz Zentrum München working with colleagues from the University of Denver have taken a further step towards uncovering the mechanisms responsible for the development of fibrosis: IPF is associated with the increase of extracellular vesicles that relay WNT5A signals to cells in the lungs...

Urinary sodium excretion, blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality: a community-level prospective epidemiological cohort study. The Lancet, 2018; 392 (10146): 496 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31376-X

Public health strategies should be based on best evidence. New research shows that for the vast majority of individuals, sodium consumption does not increase health risks except for those who eat > five grams a day, the equivalent of 2.5 teaspoons of salt. Fewer than 5% of individuals in developed countries exceed that level.

The large, international study also shows that even for those individuals there is good news...