Traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) has an immediate and catastrophic impact on movement control and on all aspects of a patient’s health and quality of life. Primary trauma injury causes direct damage, which often leads to death of cells, disruption to blood-SC barrier, and degradation of extracellular matrix (ECM). All of these processes cause an […]
When a woman goes to a prenatal visit the physician typically focuses almost exclusively on her behaviors, but new research findings suggest that science should be looking more closely at the father’s behavior as well. Whether maternal background can mitigate sperm-inherited alterations in developmental programming and modify penetrance of growth defects induced by preconception paternal […]
Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that breastfeeding has a protective effect against breast cancer. However the mechanism behind this has remained unclear. Studies using mice models suggest that this could be due to changes in breast tissue that occur during breastfeeding causing long lasting epigenetic changes. But the exact mechanism has been difficult to investigate because […]
Being obese and overweight can increase the risk of developing multiple health conditions including hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. According to studies excess weight can also cause a chronic inflammatory state in the body. Obesity is associated with this increased inflammatory state in which there is an increase in markers of inflammation and […]
Malignancies and cancer account for a quarter of human death cases. Lung, prostate, breast and colorectal cancers are the ones that cause the majority of cancer related deaths. The typical therapeutics include surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Although the methods for treating the malignancies and curing the cancer patients have greatly been improved in recent years, […]
Mammals began consuming alcohol from fermented fruit long before humans developed methods to produce alcohol from distillation. Excessive alcohol consumption is a major health and social issue globally. Recently a group of researchers has found the role of a hormone in alcohol addiction. The study was published in the journal Cell Metabolism. There have been […]
Globally we are in close and frequent contact with plastics and their degradation products, particularly nano and microplastics (NMPs). Because of their complex physical and chemical properties, they may negatively affect human health. But these exposures and their health implications remain largely uninvestigated and unknown. Plastic comes in thousands of different forms. Microplastics don’t just […]
A group of researchers recently published a study in which they found a link between high blood pressure and diabetes. The long-standing enigma of why so many patients suffering from high blood pressure also have diabetes is finally cracked by the study. The discovery has shown that a small protein, cell glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) couples […]
A robot has performed the first laparoscopic surgery without human assistance. The team from Johns Hopkins University, described the procedure in the journal Science Robotics, in which the robot performed the surgery on the soft tissue of a pig without a guiding hand of a human. The device was named Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR). […]
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, autoimmune disease characterized by central nervous system (CNS) inflammation, demyelination, and axonal loss. MS affects 2.5 million people worldwide, and imposes major burdens on individuals and society. The etiology of the disease is considered to be multifactorial, including genetics and environmental factors. Dysregulation of immune responses and abnormal metabolism […]