Category Health/Medical

Acne and telomere length. A new spectrum between senescence and apoptosis pathways. Journal of Investigative Dermatology, 2016; DOI: 10.1016/j.jid.2016.09.014

Scientists at King’s College London have found that people who have previously suffered from acne are likely to have longer telomeres (the protective repeated nucleotides found at the end of chromosomes) in their white blood cells, meaning their cells could be better protected against aging. Telomeres are repetitive nucleotide sequences found at the end of chromosomes which protect them from deteriorating during the process of replication. Telomeres gradually break down and shrink as cells age, eventually leading to cell death which is a normal part of human growth and aging...

A top view of GrBP5 nanowires on a 2-D surface of graphene. Credit: Mehmet Sarikaya/Scientific Reports

A solution lies in bridging this gap where artificial meets biological – harnessing biological rules to exchange information between the biochemistry of our bodies and the chemistry of our devices. Engineers at the University of Washington unveil peptides that can provide just such a link. The team, led by UW professor Mehmet Sarikaya in the Departments of Materials Science & Engineering, shows how a genetically engineered peptide can assemble into nanowires atop 2D, solid surfaces that are just a single layer of atoms thick...

Credit: photo by Robin Hecker for The Ohio State University College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science Ohio State Researchers Create Bioelectric Bandage for Chronic Wounds (From left to right: Vish Subramaniam, PhD, Sashwati Roy, PhD and Shaurya Prakash, PhD)

Good news for the millions of people who suffer from skin wounds that won’t heal. A team of researchers at The Ohio State University has brought a potentially transformative solution to the problem by creating a portable adhesive patch that drives a continuous, small electrical current to stimulate healing and reduce the risk of infection...

Electron micrographs revealed the alignment of the plasma membrane, with evident increase in extracellular spacing between cellular elements, to be affected in 30d w1118 flies, when compared to 3d or 30dSpd w1118 flies. Credit: Gupta VK, Pech U, Bhukel A, Fulterer A, Ender A, Mauermann SF, et al.; Creative Commons Attribution License

Synapses, connecting the neurons in our brains, continuously encode new memories, but the ability to form new memories (“learning”) diminishes drastically for many of us as we get older. Specific changes at the level of synapses directly provoke age-related dementia. However, administering a simple substance already found in our bodies, spermidine, can help to avoid such age-related synaptic changes and thereby protect from age-induced memory impairment.

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