Using CT imaging researchers monitored the healing of a human rib that had been removed partially by a surgeon.
We believe that the development of this model in the mouse is important for making progress in the field of skeletal repair where an acute clinical need is present for ameliorating skeletal injury chronic osteoarthritis
and the severe problems associated with reconstructive surgery says team leader Francesca Mariani assistant professor of cell and neurobiology and principal investigator in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative medicine and Stem Cell Research at University
At the early stages in our understanding the mouse provides us with an exceptional ability to make progress
or using rib perichondrium-like cells for regenerative therapy. The lab received support for this study and future work from the NIH the Merck Investigator Studies Program and the USC Regenerative medicine Initiative Award.
As Mariani explains These grants will allow us to address several key questions: Which cells are involved in mediating the repair?
By answering these questions we are accelerating the discovery of new regenerative therapies for the patients who need them the most.
Funding came from an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation Research Award; the Baxter Medical Scholar Research Fellowship;
USC undergraduate fellowships; the Provost Dean Joan M. Schaeffer and Rose Hills fellowships; a California Institute of Regenerative medicine (CIRM) training fellowship;
CIRM BRIDGES fellowships through California State university Fullerton and Pasadena City College; and the James H. Zumberge Research and Innovation Fund.
Additional coauthors contributed from USC and Children s Hospital Los angeles s
#Cells press down to make wounds heal faster National University of Singapore rightoriginal Studyposted by Karen Loh-NUS on September 12 2014scientists have uncovered more details about how our bodies repair wounds.
They say having a clearer idea of how the process works might help researchers develop drugs that speed up healing.
Earlier studies identified two processes at play in mending injury in the body. One involves the"purse-string"mechanism where a ring of proteins forms at the edge of a wound
and tightens like the strings of a purse. The second is"cell crawling"where cells move across the gap using armlike projections to close the gap.
Professor Benoit Ladoux co-principal investigator at the Mechanobiology Institute at the National University of Singapore and colleagues created a technique to measure the cell-generated nanoscale forces behind wound healing.
Through experiments and computational modeling they found that the two existing mechanisms are insufficient to fully explain the process.
At the early stages traction forces point away from the wound which suggests wound closure is driven initially by cell crawling.
At later stages the team observed forces pointing toward the wound. The investigators discovered a new mechanism
whereby cells gather and exert structural and mechanical forces on the underlying tissue. The contractions enable the cells to close the wound by cooperatively pressing down on the underlying tissue thus quickening the healing.
The findings are reported in Nature Physics. This study was conducted jointly with collaborators from the Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Universitat Polit cnica de Catalunya and Universitat de Barcelona in Barcelona Spain
as well as Paris Diderot University in France and the University of Waterloo in Canada. Source: National University of Singapor r
#Fake platelets could keep you from bleeding to death Emory University Georgia Institute of technology rightoriginal Studyposted by John Toon-Georgia Tech on September 9 2014a new class of synthetic platelet
-like particles could give doctors a new option for curbing surgical bleeding and addressing certain blood clotting disorders without the need for transfusions of natural platelets.
Based on soft and deformable hydrogel materials the clotting particles are triggered by the same factor that initiates the body s own clotting processes.
Tests conductedâ#in animal models and in a simulated circulatory system suggest they are effective at slowing bleeding
and can safely circulate in the bloodstream. The particles have been tested with human blood but have not undergone clinical trials in humans.##
##When used by emergency medical technicians in the civilian world or by medics in the military we expect this technology could reduce the number of deaths from excessive bleeding##says Ashley Brown a research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technologyâ
#and first author of aâ#paper describing the research published in Nature Materials.####If EMTS and medics had particles like these that could be injected
and then go specifically to the site of a serious injury they could help decrease the number of deaths associated with serious injuries.##
##The bloodstream contains proteins known as fibrinogen that are the precursors for fibrin the polymer that provides the basic structure for natural blood clots.
When they receive the right signals from a protein known as thrombin these precursors polymerize at the site of the bleeding.
The synthetic platelet-like particles use the same trigger and so are activated only when the body s natural clotting process is initiated.
To create that trigger researchers followed a process known as molecular evolution to develop an antibody that could be attached to the hydrogel particles to change their form
The resulting antibody has a high affinity for the polymerized form of fibrin and a low affinity for the precursor material.##
##Fibrin production is on the back end of the clotting process so we feel that it is a safer place to try to interact with it##says Tom Barker associate professor of biomedical engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University and a co-corresponding author of the paper.##
Researchers also tested blood from infants that had undergone open heart surgery which requires that their blood be diluted reducing its clotting ability.
Finally safety testing was done on blood from hemophiliac patients. Because that blood lacks the triggers needed to cause fibrin formation the particles had no effect.
Before they can be used in humans the particles will have to undergo human trials and receive clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration.
About one micron in diameter the particles were developed originally to be used on the battlefield by wounded soldiers who might self-administer them using a device about the size of a smartphone.
But the researchers believe the particles could also reduce the need for platelet transfusions in patients undergoing chemotherapy or bypass surgery and in those with certain blood disorders.##
##For a patient with insufficient platelets due to bleeding or an inherited disorder physicians often have to resort to platelet transfusions
which can be difficult to obtain##says Wilbur Lam another coauthor and a physician in the Aflac Cancer and Blood disorders Center at Children s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Department of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of medicine.##
##These particles could potentially be a way to obviate the need for a transfusion. Though they don t have all the assets of natural platelets a number of intriguing experiments have shown that the particles help augment the clotting process.##
##In addition to providing new treatment options the particles could also cut costs by reducing costly natural transfusions says Lam assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
Other researchers from Georgia Tech Emory Chapman University and Arizona State university are also coauthors of the paper.
New research offers a detailed analysis of the microbes that live in houses and apartments. The results published in Science shed light on the complicated interaction between humans
Mounting evidence suggests that these microscopic teeming communities play a role in human health and disease treatment and transmission.
and that others influence brain development in young mice says Argonne National Laboratory microbiologist Jack Gilbert who led the study.
They also sampled surfaces in the house including doorknobs light switches floors and countertops. Then the samples came to Argonne where researchers performed DNA analyses to characterize the different species of microbes in each sample.
We wanted to know how much people affected the microbial community on a house s surfaces
when three of the families moved it took less than a day for the new house to look just like the old one microbially speaking.
and soil bacteria in houses with indoor-outdoor dogs or cats. In at least one case the researchers tracked a potentially pathogenic strain of bacteria called Enterobacter
which first appeared on one person s hands then the kitchen counter and then another person s hands.
but it s certainly a smoking gun Gilbert says. It s also quite possible that we are exposed routinely to harmful bacteriaâ living on us
and in our environmentâ but it only causes disease when our immune systems are disrupted otherwise. Home microbiome studies also could potentially serve as a forensic tool Gilbert says.
when a person (and their microbes) leaves a house the microbial community shifts noticeably in a matter of days.
Researchers used Argonne s Magellan cloud computing system to analyze the data; additional support came from the University of Chicago Research Computing Center.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation funded the study. Additional funding also came from the National institutes of health the Environmental protection agency and the National Science Foundation.
Additional researchers contributed to the study from Argonne University of Chicago Washington University in St louis and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Source: University of Chicago You are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license i
#Daily marijuana use at 30-year high on campus University of Michigan rightoriginal Studyposted by Jared Wadley-Michigan on September 8 2014 In 2013 39 percent of American
college students indicated they d used an illicit drug in the preceding year that s up from 34 percent in the 2006 survey.
Most of this increase is attributable to a rising proportion using marijuana according to scientists. Daily marijuana use is now at the highest rate among college students in more than three decades.
Half (51 percent) of all full-time college students today have used an illicit drug at some time in their lives.
Roughly 4 in 10 (39 percent) have used one or more such drugs in just the 12 months preceding the survey The results are based on a nationally representative sample of some 1100 students enrolled full time in a 2-or 4-year college in spring 2013.
The survey is part of the long-term Monitoring the Future (MTF) study which also tracks substance use among the nation s secondary students
and older adults under research grants from the National Institute on Drug abuse. Marijuana has remained the most widely used illicit drug over the 34 years that MTF has tracked substance use by college students
but the level of use has varied considerably over time. In 2006 30 percent of the nation s college students said they used marijuana in the prior 12 months
whereas in 2013 nearly 36 percent indicated doing so. Of perhaps greater importance daily or near-daily use of marijuana defined as 20 or more occasions of use in the prior 30 days has been on the rise.
This is the highest rate of daily use observed among college students since 1981 a third of a century ago says Lloyd Johnston the principal investigator of the MTF study.
In other words one in every 20 college students was smoking pot on a daily or near-daily basis in 2013 including one in every 11 males and one in every 34 females.
To put this into a longer-term perspective from 1990 to 1994 fewer than one in 50 college students used marijuana that frequently.
Nonmedical use of the amphetamine Adderall used by some students to stay awake and concentrate when preparing for tests
or trying to finish homework ranks second among the illicit drugs being used in college. Eleven percent of college students in 2013 or one in every nine indicated some Adderall use without medical supervision in the prior 12 months.
The use of psychostimulants including Adderall and Ritalin has doubled nearly since the low point in 2008 though there was no further increase in this measure between 2012 and 2013.
The next most frequently used illicit drugs by college students are ecstasy hallucinogens and narcotic drugs other than heroin with each of these three having about 5 percent of college students reporting any use in the prior 12 months.
Ecstasy use after declining considerably between 2002 and 2007 from 9. 2 percent annual prevalence to 2. 2 percent has made somewhat of a comeback on campus. It rose to 5. 8 percent using in the prior 12 months in 2012
Hallucinogen use among college students has remained at about 5 percent since 2007 following an earlier period of decline.
The use of narcotic drugs other than heroin like Vicodin and Oxycontin peaked in 2006 with 8. 8 percent of college students indicating any past-year use without medical supervision.
Past-year use of these dangerous drugs by college students has declined since to 5. 4 percent in 2012 where it remained in 2013.
and was sold over-the-counter in convenience stores and other shops ranked fairly high in 2011 with past-year use at more than 7 percent of college students that year.
Use has fallen sharply in the two years since however to just over 2 percent in 2013 (secondary school students have shown a similar recent drop in their use of synthetic marijuana according to the Monitoring the Future annual surveys of middle and high school students).
The use of salvia an herb in the mint family has fallen sharply since 2009 when it was added first to the study from 5. 8 percent of college students reporting use in the prior 12 months to just 1 percent in 2013.
The use of some other illicit drugs by college students also has declined in the past decade including crack cocaine powder cocaine tranquilizers and hallucinogens other than LSD
(which involves psilocybin e g. magic mushrooms). Another encouraging result is that a number of illicit drugs have been used in the prior 12 months by fewer than 1 percent of college students in 2013.
These drugs include inhalants crack cocaine heroin methamphetamine bath salts GHB and ketamine. In general female college students (who are now in the majority) are less likely to use these drugs than are their male counterparts.
For example 40 percent of college males used marijuana in the past year compared to 33 percent of college females.
Also 24 percent of males versus 16 percent of females used some illicit drug other than marijuana.
Daily or near-daily use of marijuana was concentrated particularly among college males with nearly 9 percent of them indicating marijuana use on 20
or more occasions in the prior 30 days compared with only 3 percent of college females.
There remains plenty of alcohol use on the nation s college campuses with about three quarters (76 percent) of college students indicating drinking at least once in the past 12 months
and more than half (58 percent) saying they had gotten drunk at least once in that period. In fact more than a third (35 percent) said they had consumed five
Averaged across years 2005 to 2013 they find that one in eight (13 percent) college students had 10
To some degree these declines may reflect the declines observed among high school seniors before they even went off to college
and are at historic lows among high school students. The age peers of college students that is young adults who are also one to four years out of high school
but are not full-time college students have roughly equivalent proportions to college students in their past-year use of any illicit drug or any illicit drug other than marijuana.
They also have quite similar rates of several specific drugs including past-year use of marijuana ecstasy hallucinogens other than LSD and extreme binge drinking.
However they are twice as likely as college students to be daily marijuana users and they have annual prevalence rates of use for several particularly dangerous drugs that are roughly two to three times as high as rates found among college students.
These include crack cocaine crystal methamphetamine heroin and narcotic drugs other than heroin (including Oxycontin and Vicodin specifically).
The noncollege segment also has a daily cigarette smoking rate roughly three times what it is among college students
but they have a somewhat lower rate of having been drunk in the prior 30 days (34 percent) than do college students (40 percent).
Source: University of Michiganyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license e
#Heart disease could be written on your face University of Rochester rightoriginal Studyposted by Mark Michaud-Rochester on September 2 2014new technology that uses software algorithms
and a web camera can detect subtle changes in facial skin color that indicate the uneven blood flow caused by atrial fibrillation a treatable but potentially dangerous heart condition.##
##This technology holds the potential to identify and diagnose cardiac disease using contactless video monitoring##says Jean-Philippe Couderc from the University of Rochester Medical center s Heart Research Follow-up Program.
Â###This is a very simple concept but one that could enable more people with atrial fibrillation to get the care the care they need.##
##Atrial fibrillation an irregular or sometimes rapid heart rate that commonly causes poor blood flow to the body occurs
Â#More than three million Americans suffer from the disease. While the condition can be diagnosed readily it often goes undetectedâ
The technology described in the study employs a software algorithm developed by Xerox Corp. that scans the face
Sensors in digital cameras are designed to record three colors: red green and blue. Hemoglobinâ##a component of bloodâ###absorbs##more of the green spectrum of light
and this subtle change can be detected by the camera s sensor. In turns out that the face is the ideal place to detect this phenomenon
For the study published in Heart Rhythm participants were hooked simultaneously up to an electrocardiogram (ECG) so results from the facial scan could be compared to the actual electrical activity of the heart.
Color changes detected by video monitoring corresponded with an individualâ##s heart rate as detected on an ECG.
The video monitoring technique which researchers dubbed videoplethymography had an error rate of 20 percent comparable to the 17 to 29 percent error rate associated with automated ECG measurements.
The contactless nature of the technology and the proliferation of web cameras could even eventually allow the screening to occur without interrupting the user.
while someone is reading their email on their tablet computer or smart phone. Other researchers from University of Rochester and from Xerox Corp. contributed to the study
which was funded by Xerox and the Center for Emerging and Innovative Sciences. Source: University of Rochesteryou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license h
#Low-carb beats low-fat in weight loss study Tulane University rightoriginal Studyposted by Keith Brannon-Tulane on September 2 2014new research adds heft to claims that low-carb
diets can help people lose weight without compromising heart health. Published in the Annals of Internal medicine the study includedâ#148 obese participants randomly assigned to either a low-carbohydrateâ#diet consuming less than 40 grams of digestible carbs aâ#day
or a low-fat diet consuming less than 30 percent of daily calories from fat. Both groups received dietary advice but neither had strict calorie or exercise goals.
After a year the low-carb group lost an average of 7. 7 pounds more than the low-fat group.
The blood levels of certain fats that are predictors of heart disease risk also improved more in the low-carb group.
While low-density lipoprotein cholesterol for both groups were about the same the low-carb group saw a spike in so-called##good##HDL cholesterol and a decline in the ratio of bad to good cholesterol.
The results challenge the perception that low-fat diets are always better for the heart says lead author Lydia Bazzano professor in nutrition research at Tulane University School of Public health and Tropical Medicine.##
##Yet we found those on a low-carb diet had significantly greater decreases in estimated 10-year risk for heart disease after six and 12 months than the low-fat group.##
While the low-carb dieters got 41 percent of their calories from fat most were healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats like olive or canola oil.
Women could use this method to protect against the spread of sexually transmitted infections during unprotected heterosexual intercourse the researchers say.
or rectally offer a way to slow the spread of the virus notes lead researcher Toral Zaveri postdoctoral scholar in the food science department at Penn State.
Because carrageenan is plant-based it is acceptable to vegetarians there is no risk of animal-acquired infections
Condoms have been successful in preventing transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. However effectiveness depends on correct and consistent use by the male partner she says.
Due to socioeconomic and gender inequities women in some countries and cultures are not always in a position to negotiate regular condom use so a drug-dispersing suppository can protect against transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections during heterosexual intercourse
whose infection status may or may not be known to the woman. As part of the research Zaveri who earned her doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Florida conducted extensive sensory-perception testing to assess acceptability of the suppositories among women.
Women participating in the study at the Sensory Evaluation Center in Penn State s Department of Food science were presented with suppositoriesâ without the drug in a variety of sizes shapes and textures.
They indicated their preferences and rated the suppositories for willingness to try and imagined ease of insertion.
The initial evaluations all were done only in the hand as part of this preclinical development effort.
Zaveri also studied the release of Tenofovir from the suppositories in a simulated vaginal environment to ensure that the drug will be released once inserted in the body even in the presence of semen.
Zaveri notes that some may be surprised that biomedical research is done in the food science department. But she says it seemed natural given her collaboration on the study with Gregory Ziegler who has expertise in biopolymers such as carrageenan
and John Hayes who is known for his proficiency in sensory-perception research. The biomedical use of a food additive a material widely used in the food industry for its gelling thickening and stabilizing properties as a medium for a drug-delivery system is a novel idea
but we were playing to all of our strengths on the team she says. Previous microbicides were generally solids or liquids.
Considering the safety efficacy and user-acceptability tests that we are doing it easily is possible for a company to take this product and run with it.
A National institutes of health grant to Hayes and Ziegler through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases supported this work
#Drug combo heals wounds fast with less scarring Johns hopkins university rightoriginal Studyposted by Vanessa Mcmains-Johns Hopkins on August 28 2014doctors have stumbled onto a potential new use for two approved medications.
When used in combination they heal wounds more quickly with less scar tissue. In mice and rats injecting the two drugs in combination speeds the healing of surgical woundsâ#by about one-quarter
and significantly decreases scar tissue. If the findings published in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology hold up in future human studies the treatment might also speed skin healing in people with skin ulcers extensive burns and battlefield injuries.##
##The findings mean that wound healing is accelerated not only but also that real skin regeneration is occurring##says Zhaoli Sun director of transplant biology research at Johns Hopkins School of medicine.##
##These animals had more perfect skin repair in the wound area.####The wound healing potential of the two drugs was discovered incidentally
while the researchers were working to prevent rejection of liver transplants. One of the drugs AMD3100 is used generally to move stem cells from bone marrow to the bloodstream to be harvested
and stored for patients recovering from cancer chemotherapy. The other tacrolimus tamps down immune response. Researchers noticed that
in addition to successfully preventing liver graft rejection in their study the drugs when used together seemed to improve wound healing in animals.
Focusing on just the wound healing##side effect##the scientists launched the rodent study to determine what the mechanism behind its therapeutic effects might be.
Some of the mice received injections of just AMD3100. Others received injections of tacrolimus in doses just one-tenth of what is given usually to prevent organ and tissue rejection.
Another group received injections of both AMD3100 and low-dose tacrolimus. A group of control animals received saline injections.
Animals that received only saline healed completely in 12 days while those that received both drugs healed in nine days a reduction of 25 percent.
Those that received only one drug or the other recorded just a modest one-day improvement in healing time.
Additionally they found that the wounds in animals that received the drug combination healed with less scar tissue and regrew skinâ##s hair follicles.
Though the study tested the drug combination only on surgical excisions the researchers say the beneficial effects also apply to burn injuries
and excisions in diabetic rats in studies that are now under way. Researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Alcohol abuse and Alcoholism participated in the study.
Johns hopkins university School of medicine s Transplant Biology Research center and a gift from the family of Francesc Gines supported the research.
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