A study published in Journal of Immunology indicates that families with a high level of cortisol (a marker of stress) may negatively impact the immune system in young children. The study included families with 5 year old children and the researchers have plans to expand it to families with children 18 to 22 years old.
New Poverty and Health Research
According to a paper recently published by Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung gGmbH, changes in subjective health, measured symptoms of poor health, and functional health limitations as strongly correlated with poverty. The study involved Europeans over 50 years old across 12 countries.
Depression Risk May Be Higher With Active Thyroid
New research published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism indicuates that an active throid gland in older individuals may lead to higher rates of depression. The thyroid gland is responsible for regulating the body’s metabolism, and can influence mental health.
Reprogramming Skin Cells Into Liver Cells
SAN FRANCISCO, CA— The power of regenerative medicine now allows scientists to transform skin cells into cells that closely resemble heart cells, pancreas cells and even neurons. However, a method to generate cells that are fully mature—a crucial prerequisite for life-saving therapies—has proven far more difficult. But now, scientists at the Gladstone Institutes and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), have made an important breakthrough: they have discovered a way to transform skin cells into mature, fully functioning liver cells that flourish on their own, even after being transplanted into laboratory animals modified to mimic liver failure.
These results offer new hope for the millions of people suffering from, or at risk of developing, liver failure—an increasingly common condition that results in progressive and irreversible loss of liver function. At present, the only option is a costly liver transplant. So, scientists have long looked to stem cell technology as a potential alternative. But thus far they have come up largely empty-handed.
Antibody may be detectable in blood years before MS symptoms appear
PHILADELPHIA An antibody found in the blood of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) may be present long before the onset of the disease and its symptoms, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.
"If our results can be replicated in larger populations, our findings may help to detect MS earlier in a subgroup of patients," said study author Viola Biberacher, MD, with Technical University in Munich, Germany. "Finding the disease before symptoms appear means we can better prepare to treat and possibly even prevent those symptoms. This finding also demonstrates that the antibody development to the KIR4.1 protein, a protein found in some people with MS, precedes the clinical onset of disease suggesting a role of the autoantibody in how the disease develops."
For the study, 16 healthy blood donors who were later diagnosed with MS were compared to 16 healthy blood donors of the same age and sex who did not develop MS. Scientists looked for a specific antibody to KIR4.1. Samples were collected between two and nine months before the first symptoms of MS appeared.