Category Health/Medical

MLCK and RLC phosphorylation are required for the basal tone in IAS.

A new molecular pathway critical for maintaining the smooth muscle tone that allows the passage of materials through the digestive system. This finding, based on studying calcium ion-controlled pathways in mice, may lead to new treatments for a host of digestive disorders ranging from common gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), to swallowing disorders, incontinence and pancreatitis.

A/Prof Ronghua ZhuGe, PhD said:. “Knowing how these muscles stay contracted for such long periods of time will allow us to develop potential new treatments for these diseases. The next step is to see whether this molecular mechanism in mice also operates in humans...

Microtubules in a cardiomyocyte at rest (top) and when compressed. Credit: The lab of Ben Prosser, Ph.D., Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Using new high-resolution microscopy, a team from the Perelman School of Medicine and School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania found microtubules (MT) interact with the heart’s contractile machinery to provide mechanical resistance for the beating of the heart. Their findings could have implications for better understanding how microtubules affect the mechanics of the beating heart, and what happens when this goes awry.

Alterations in this microtubule network have been suggested to contribute to heart disease, but just how microtubules behave in the beating heart is poorly understood...

A new study finds a link between adequate sleep, earlier bedtimes and heart-healthy behavior. Credit: University of Delaware/Jeffrey C. Chase

Study connects Early Bedtime and ‘Adequate’ sleep with Heart Healthy choices. Early-to-bed, early-to-rise approach aligns much better with cardiovascular health. Sleep deficits and poor-quality sleep have been linked to obesity and a myriad of health problems, but this study shows that when it comes to promoting healthy hearts, it’s not a matter of getting more sleep. It’s a matter of getting adequate sleep at optimal times. Doing that seems to reduce the kind of behaviors – smoking, sedentary lifestyles and poor dietary choices – that put hearts in harm’s way.

The study examined the duration and approximate timing of sleep to see what patterns might...

Space shuttle Atlantis is photographed from the International Space Station as it flies over the Bahamas prior to docking with the station (2011). Credit: NASA

In a discovery with implications for long-term spaceflight and future missions to Mars, a researcher at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus has found that mice flown aboard the space shuttle Atlantis returned to Earth with early signs of liver disease. “Prior to this study we really didn’t have much information on the impact of spaceflight on the liver,” said A/Prof Karen Jonscher. “We knew that astronauts often returned with diabetes-like symptoms but they usually resolved quickly.”

The mice studied spent 13.5 days aboard the space shuttle...