Category Health/Medical

An artist’s rendering incorporates the images of the Müller glia-derived rod photoreceptors. These photoreceptors were structurally no different from real photoreceptors and they became integrated within the circuitry of the visual pathway, from the retina to the brain. Credit: Bo Chen, Ph.D.

New technique generates rod photoreceptors that integrate into the retina and brain. Researchers funded by the National Eye Institute (NEI) have reversed congenital blindness in mice by changing supportive cells in the retina called Müller glia into rod photoreceptors. The findings advance efforts toward regenerative therapies for blinding diseases such as age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

“This is the first report of scientists reprogramming Müller glia to become functional...

Three generations. Women whose mothers lived into their ninth decade enjoyed 25 percent increased likelihood of also doing so without suffering from serious or chronic illness, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, hip fractures or other debilitating disabilities. Credit: © highwaystarz / Fotolia

Results show a 25% increased likelihood of living longer and healthier if mom lived to age 90 and a 38% increase if both parents did. The study, published in Age and Ageing, found women whose mothers lived into their ninth decade enjoyed 25% increased likelihood of also doing so without suffering from serious or chronic illness, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, hip fractures or other debilitating disabilities.

“Achieving healthy aging has become a critical public he...

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...