Early life environment may lead to high blood pressure in children

Where a mother lives and the temperature outside while she is pregnant, among other environmental factors, can impact whether her child is prehypertensive or hypertensive during childhood, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. Exposure to negative lifestyle factors in pregnancy, such as obesity, physical inactivity, poor diet, and alcohol and tobacco […]

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Narcissism – and the various ways it can lead to domestically abusive relationships

Narcissism is a topic that is increasingly spoken about in today’s Instagram obsessed age of self-promotion and vanity. There has also been a significant increase in studies and investigations into narcissism, and that too has brought narcissism far more into the public domain. Any evidence of increasing self-awareness is to be welcomed. And yet, there is a danger here, because […]

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Researchers 3-D bio-print a model that could lead to improved anticancer drugs and treatments

University of Minnesota researchers have developed a way to study cancer cells which could lead to new and improved treatment. They have developed a new way to study these cells in a 3-D in vitro model (i.e. in a culture dish rather than in a human or animal). In a paper recently published in Advanced Materials, Angela Panoskaltsis-Mortari, Ph.D., Vice […]

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Discovery of enhanced bone growth could lead to new treatments for osteoporosis

UCLA and UC San Francisco life scientists have discovered a dramatic pattern of bone growth in female mice—research that could potentially lead to stronger bone density in women and new treatments for osteoporosis in older women. The researchers found that blocking a particular set of signals from a small number of neurons in the brain causes female, but not male, […]

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New yeast model of metabolic disorders may lead to life-saving therapies

There are hundreds of metabolic disorders—including phenylketonuria, tyrosinemia, maple syrup urine disease and homocystinuria. These disorders lead to congenital diseases that produce a critical enzyme deficiency that interferes with the body’s metabolism. The pathologies and symptoms vary among the diseases, but all of them are usually fatal and have no known cure. Most metabolic disorders affect infants. The majority of […]

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Discovery may lead to safer drugs to save more women in childbirth

Postpartum hemorrhaging is the world’s leading cause of death for women during and after childbirth, and the third-leading cause in the United States alone. Many doctors in developing countries have turned to the drug misoprostol to save more women from deadly bleeding. Misoprostol, although affordable, has dangerous side effects, including uterine cramping, heart attack, toxicity in the brain and spinal […]

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In vitro cell culture findings could lead to novel interventions for schizophrenia

A study recently published in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature journal, has shown how using cultured cells from patients with psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, to investigate abnormalities in nerve connections in the brain could lead to new treatments. Strong correlations were observed between the findings in the cells in culture—grown outside the body in a controlled environment—and findings from brain […]

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Discovery of new neurons in the inner ear can lead to new therapies for hearing disorders

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified four types of neurons in the peripheral auditory system, three of which are new to science. The analysis of these cells can lead to new therapies for various kinds of hearing disorders, such as tinnitus and age-related hearing loss. The study is published in Nature Communications. When sound reaches the inner ear, […]

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