Bone marrow, the spongy tissue inside long bones, produces new blood cells and helps the lymphatic system work properly. But it may also turn out to be a progressively hostile microenvironment that induces vascular dysfunction and ossification, or hardening, of blood vessels.
Rhonda Prisby, who is using a rat model to study bone vascular physiology and morphology, was recently surprised when she used light microscopy to look at bone marrow vessels. (more…)
A growing body of evidence suggests that the brain plays a key role in glucose regulation and the development of type 2 diabetes, researchers write in the Nov. 7 ssue of the journal Nature. If the hypothesis is correct, it may open the door to entirely new ways to prevent and treat this disease, which is projected to affect one in three adults in the United States by 2050.
In the paper, lead author Dr. Michael W. Schwartz, UW professor of medicine and director of the Diabetes and Obesity Center of Excellence, and his colleagues from the universities of Cincinnati, Michigan, and Munich, note that the brain was originally thought to play an important role in maintaining normal glucose metabolism With the discovery of insulin in the 1920s, the focus of research and diabetes care shifted to almost exclusively to insulin. Today, almost all treatments for diabetes seek to either increase insulin levels or increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin. (more…)
Opening prescription medicine bottles can be a struggle for individuals with arthritis. When the medicine inside the bottle is supposed to relieve the pain, but opening the bottle causes additional pain, the experience can be even more frustrating.(more…)
UCLA researchers build a multisensory virtual world
To survive, animals must explore their world to find the necessities of life. It’s a complex task, requiring them to form them a mental map of their environment to navigate the safest and fastest routes to food and water. They also learn to anticipate when and where certain important events, such as finding a meal, will occur. (more…)
When New York City moved in 2006 to make it easier for transgender people to revise the gender on their birth certificates, the proposal was widely expected to pass.(more…)
In two years, 3D screening has picked up more early cancers than mammography while cutting down on the number of callbacks. One radiologist calls it “a game changer.”
October 2013) No woman wants to get a call that her radiologist has found a suspicious image on her mammogram, and then learn that she might need a biopsy—only to find out it was all a false alarm. Now, thanks to new technology, fewer women will get those calls.
Digital breast tomosynthesis, or 3-D mammography, is transforming breast screening by significantly reducing callbacks while picking up more cancers, and eliminating some of the fear and anxiety many women experience. All women who visit the Breast Center at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven for mammography are now getting tomosynthesis over plain 2D mammography, says Liane Philpotts, MD, chief of breast imaging for the Breast Center. (more…)
Being left-handed has been linked to many mental disorders, but Yale researcher Jadon Webb and his colleagues have found that among those with mental illnesses, people with psychotic disorders like schizophrenia are much more likely to be left-handed than those with mood disorders like depression or bipolar syndrome.
The new study is published in the October-December 2013 issue of the journal SAGE Open. (more…)
Study finds women’s breast tissue ages faster than the rest of the body
Everyone grows older, but scientists don’t really understand why. Now a UCLA study has uncovered a biological clock embedded in our genomes that may shed light on why our bodies age and how we can slow the process.
Published in the Oct. 21 edition of the journal Genome Biology, the findings could offer valuable insights to benefit cancer and stem cell research. (more…)
