Category Health/Medical

Mild cold and exercise stimulate creation of “beige fat” in white adipose tissue

It triggers a surprising metabolic mechanism: white fat cells are transformed into cells similar to brown fat ( ‘beige fat’), that protects the body against excess weight and its damaging consequences. In healthy humans, white adipose tissue constitutes ~25% of body mass. However, when in excess, white fat contributes to insulin resistance and diabetes. Conversely, brown fat improves insulin sensitivity and is reversely correlated to obesity.

In response to cold or exercise, cells similar to brown fat – the beige fat – can appear within the white fat, a phenomenon known as “browning...

University of Arizona biomedical engineering doctoral student Jeffrey Watson, left, and associate professor of biomedical engineering Marek Romanowski assemble parts for the prototype microscopy device. Credit: UA College of Engineering

It allows neurosurgeons, who use microscopes extensively while operating, to see blood flowing inside vessels and more clearly distinguish cancerous from healthy tissue. It gives a more detailed picture in real time and helps them stay on course in surgeries where being off 2mm could cause paralysis, blindness and even death.

Prof Marek Romanowski, UA said “Our augmented technology provides diagnostic information under the microscope on demand and in color, appearing directly over tissue a surgeon is operating on, as if the tissue was painted to help direct...

A University of Oregon study finds abundance does not dictate the immune response to bacteria in the guts of zebrafish. This graphic depicts immune response (neutrophils, shown in green) to separate bacterial species, and the response when the two bacteria are placed into a germ-free fish gut at the same time. Credit: Courtesy of Annah S. Rolig

University of Oregon scientists have found strength in numbers doesn’t hold true for microbes in the intestines.The findings provide a path to study the function of each bacterial species in the gut and to eventually, perhaps, predict and prevent disease...

Electronic glasses have been proven as effective as eye patches for lazy eye in children. Credit: American Academy of Ophthalmology

Programmable digital glasses for lazy eye work as well as eye patching, study shows, improving vision by about 2 lines on the reading chart after 3 months. First new effective lazy eye treatment in 50 years. Amblyopia remains the most common cause of visual impairment in children.The child needs to receive treatment by the age of 8 or so while their eyes and brain are still developing, or he or she could become blind in the weaker eye.

Unfortunately, its hard getting kids to comply with lazy eye treatments like eye patches or medicated drops.Nearly 15% refuse to take eye drops at all. Both drops and eye patches work based on the occlusion method...