Category Health/Medical

Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University and Dr. Haidong Zhu, molecular geneticist at the GPI. Credit: Phil Jones

The length of your telomeres appears to be a window into your heart health and longevity, and scientists are measuring them to see if vitamin D and omega-3 supplements really improve both. “Many people take these supplements every day to help protect their heart and slow aging without significant clinical evidence that they do either,” said Dr. Yanbin Dong, geneticist and cardiologist at the Georgia Prevention Institute at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University.

Telomeres are found on either end of the chromosomes inside your cells where they essentially function as a b...

Scientists Develop Tissue-Engineered Model of Human Lung and Trachea

Scientists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have developed a tissue-engineered model of lung and trachea which contains the diverse cell types present in the human respiratory tract. Lung disease causes >200,000 deaths annually in the US. Although the lung is generally considered slow to respond to disease and injury, it does undergo regenerative processes, most of which are not fully understood. Building an understanding of these processes might lead to harnessing these innate mechanisms to help damaged lungs repair. A first step is a proper 3D model in which the disease process can be studied.

Previously, Grikscheit’s lab developed tissue-engineered small intestine (TESI) and showed that this regenerated tissue was fu...

Researchers have discovered that the intestinal parasite Tritrichomonas muris (pictured) increases the susceptibility of its host to colitis. Credit: Escalante et al., 2016

Researchers from University of Toronto have discovered that mice infected with the common gut parasite Tritrichomonas muris are at an increased risk of developing inflammatory colitis. Their findings expand the type of gut-resident microorganism that can affect the health of their host and suggest that related parasites may cause gastrointestinal disease in humans. Though some protozoan species, which are part of the protist kingdom of life, cause diseases like malaria and leishmaniasis, the protozoa that commonly live in the gut are generally thought to be harmless.

While studying the inflammatory mechanisms underlying...

Propionibacterium acnes. Credit: Matthias Mörgelin, Lund University

Rolf Lood from Lund University in Sweden has shown that the most common bacteria on human skin, Propionibacterium acnes secrete a protein which protects us from the reactive oxygen species thought to contribute to several skin diseases. The protein has an equally strong effect on dangerous oxygen species as known antioxidants eg vitamin C and E.

“The name originates from the fact that the bacterium was first discovered on a patient with severe acne. But whether it causes acne is uncertain – it may have been present merely because it is so common,” says Rolf Lood, Lund. He has discovered that the “acne bacterium” secretes a proteinm RoxP...