Category Health/Medical

what does a torn meniscus look like

The researchers suggest that supervised exercise therapy should be considered as a treatment option for middle aged patients with this type of knee damage. Every year, 2 million people worldwide undergo knee arthroscopy (keyhole surgery to relieve pain and improve movement) at a cost of several billion US dollars. Yet current evidence suggests that arthroscopic knee surgery offers little benefit for most patients. So researchers based in Denmark and Norway carried out a randomised controlled trial to compare exercise therapy alone with arthroscopic surgery alone in middle aged patients with degenerative meniscal tears.

They identified 140 adults (average ~50 years) with degenerative meniscal tears, verified by MRI scan, at 2 public hospitals and 2 physio...

Schematic representation of the contribution of soluble ADAM33 (sADAM33) as a local tissue susceptibility gene in asthma pathobiology.

A potential novel way of preventing asthma at the origin of the disease has been found, a finding that could challenge the current understanding of the condition. Insight, analysed the impact of the gene ADAM33, which is associated with the development of asthma. ADAM33 makes an enzyme, which is attached to cells in the airway muscles. When the enzyme loses its anchor to the cell surface, it is prone to going rogue around the lung causing poorer lung function in people who have asthma.

The studies in human tissue samples and mice, led by A/Prof Hans Michel Haitchi suggests that if you inhibit ADAM33 or prevent it from going rouge, the features of asthma – a...

Primary hippocampal neurons from mice express G2019S-LRRK2. The neurons were treated with alpha-synuclein fibrils, and 18 days later immunofluorescence was performed. The magenta shows phospho-alpha-synuclein inclusions in the cell bodies and throughout the axons, which are visualized as green. Credit: UAB

A team has shown the most common genetic cause of Parkinson’s disease – a mutant LRRK2 kinase enzyme – contributes to the formation of inclusions in neurons, resembling one of the hallmark pathologies seen in Parkinson’s disease. These inclusions are made up of aggregated alpha synuclein protein, which – the research also shows – can be prevented from forming by using 2 LRRK2 kinase inhibitor drugs now being developed for clinical use.

The interaction between mutant LRRK2 kinase and alph...

The synapses of pyramid cells in the cerebral cortex form functional groups. Some of the related synapses are shown in green in the reconstruction. Credit: MPI of Neurobiology / Scheuss

The contact points of cells in the cerebral cortex form functional groups. The cerebral cortex resembles a vast switchboard. Countless lines carrying information about the environment, for example from the sensory organs, converge in the cerebral cortex. In order to direct the flow of data into meaningful pathways, the individual pyramidal cells of the cerebral cortex act like miniature switchboard operators. Each cell receives information from several thousand lines. Scientists have shown for the first time that synapses between specific neuron types are clustered in groups on the target neuron...