Category Health/Medical

Experimental design of microRNA analysis of lizard tail regeneration. a: Image of a green anole lizard with a fully regenerated tail (arrow at break point). b: A 25 dpa regenerating tail was divided into three equally sized segments, with the distal regenerating tip and proximal regenerating base collected for microRNA sequencing (sequenced each for the regenerating tail tip and base, n = 3 per pool). For qRT-PCR analysis, five equally sized segments were collected (n = 4). c: Venn diagram showing the distribution of microRNAs expressed in the brain, skeletal muscle, and 25 dpa regenerating tail tip and base (minimum count of 1)

Findings from lizards may impact future therapies to regrow organs in humans...

For monitoring heart palpitations, Anne Curtis MD and co-authors found a smartphone app provided comparable performance to the 14-day event monitors. Credit: Douglas Levere, University at Buffalo

Patients found the AliveCor app ‘significantly easier to use’ than ambulatory monitors. Throughout the 2-week study, 32 patients who had had some symptoms of cardiac arrhythmias, were required to use both methods to record when they were having palpitations. The UB researchers found AliveCor Heart Monitor smartphone app correctly recorded 91% of total arrhythmic events experienced by patients vs 87.5% recorded by the event monitors.

Patients were far more likely to be compliant with the smartphone app, the study found, with 94% of patients complying with the smartphone app versus just 58% with the...

A research team from Duke Health has developed an antibody from the body’s own immune system that preferentially attacks cancer cells. The antibody works by targeting a natural defense mechanism that cancer tumors exploit. Cells in the body essentially use a home security system that relies on certain proteins to protect the cell surface and keep it safe. These proteins help the cell avoid injury and even death from unwanted activation of the immune system. Credit: Alisa Weigandt for Duke Health

The antibody works by targeting a natural defense mechanism that cancer tumors exploit. Duke team describes the workings of a cancer-fighting antibody they discovered, developed and tested in cell lines and animal models...

To make a good framework for filling in missing bone, mix at least 30% pulverized natural bone with some special human-made plastic and create the needed shape with a 3D printer. That’s the recipe for success reported by researchers at The Johns Hopkins University. Each year birth defects, trauma or surgery leave an estimated 200,000 people in need of replacement bones in the head or face. Historically, the best treatment required surgeons to remove part of a patient’s fibula (a leg bone that doesn’t bear much weight), cut it into the general shape needed and implant it in the right location. But the procedure not only creates leg trauma but also falls short because the relatively straight fibula can’t be shaped to fit the subtle curves of the face very well.

Three-Dimensional Printing of...