Category Health/Medical

Human beta cells grown in culture (blue). Cells on right were induced to undergo senescence, causing them to secrete more insulin, stained in red. Credit: Dr. Ronny Helman

The researchers examined the activity of gene p16, which activates senescence in cells (prevents cells from dividing, and is therefore important in preventing cancer). The activity of the p16 gene increases in human and mouse pancreatic beta cells during aging and limits their potential to divide. This activity is thus seen as having a negative effect – the lack of ability of these cells to divide can contribute to diabetes, since beta cells are the cells responsible for secreting insulin when blood glucose levels are high. However, it was unknown whether senescent beta cells could continue functioning at all.

To their s...

People with a specific gene mutation have a 50 percent lower risk of suffering a heart attack. This is what an international team of researchers headed by the cardiologist Prof. Heribert Schunkert, medical director of the German Heart Center at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), discovered in a broad comparative study. If this gene were switched off with medications it could reduce the risk of coronary disease significantly. Credit: Jeanette Erdmann / University of Luebeck / New England Journal of Medicine

Shutting down a gene via meds may reduce heart attack risk. An international research group headed by cardiologist Prof...

A high breast density is an independent risk factor for breast cancer. MRT is the safest method for breast cancer diagnosis and is now used for early diagnosis. Medical University Vienna researchers at the University Clinic for Radiology and Nuclear Medicine have now successfully developed a method for the exact measurement of breast density using magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) examinations with the Dixon sequence. With this, in addition to a better breast cancer diagnosis, a better assessment of the risk is also possible.

For the first time worldwide an objective measurement of breast density, with fully automatic software and higher precision and reproducibility, has been detected with this method, and a prototype currently exists...

This image shows cell death of the human neural progenitor cells (hNPCs) is mark by cleaved caspase 3 in red, the nuclei of hNPCs are labeled by DAPI in white/grey, and the ZIKA virus is labeled by ZIKA virus envelope protein in green. Credit: Sarah C. Ogden

The Zika virus infects a type of neural stem cell that gives rise to the brain’s cerebral cortex. On laboratory dishes, these stem cells were found to be havens for viral reproduction, resulting in cell death and/or disruption of cell growth. While this study does not prove the direct link between Zika and microcephaly, it does pinpoint where the virus may be doing the most damage.

The researchers from Johns Hopkins, Florida State Uni and Emory University School of Medicine, worked around the clock for a month to conduct the study, whi...