Anti-inflammatory drugs help prevent hypertension-related kidney damage

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): Anti-inflammatory drugs can help block the rapid kidney destruction that can occur with hypertension, claim Medical College of Georgia researchers.

They found that treating hypertensive rats with the broad-acting anti-inflammatory drug pentosan polysulfate preserves the kidney”s ability to regulate pressure placed on tiny filters called glomeruli.

A million of these fragile structures are responsible for filtering the body”s total plasma volume 60 times daily.

Therapeutic intervention is a long-term goal, said Dr. Edward W. Inscho, corresponding author.

“Because the job is big, the kidneys are vulnerable to injury. If we can keep them functioning longer, quality of life is going to be better longer,” he added.

However, he noted that this exact approach isn”t a treatment option primarily because of side effects that can result from long-term use of anti-inflammatory drugs.

Hypertension and diabetes take a similar toll on kidneys and together, the pervasive conditions are creating a rapidly growing number of patients in kidney failure.

“The number of people going to dialysis because of these two maladies just grows exponentially so there is a really good reason to figure this out,” said Inscho.

In a rather vicious circle, kidneys are hurt by and contribute to hypertension— which comes first remains unresolved.

But one key way hypertension hurts kidneys is by blunting the function of afferent arterioles, tiny blood vessels that feed the filtering units.

Much like a dam operator controls water flow into a river, a mechanosensor, likely located inside the smooth muscle cells that form the blood vessel walls, keeps tabs on the pressure of the blood flowing through the afferent arteriolar into the filters.

If pressure gets too high, it prompts the small vessel to contract.

“You want the vasculature to constrict because filters are very delicate and the kidneys want to keep blood flow and filtration relatively constant,” said Inscho.

He noted that this balancing act enables kidney tubules, which reabsorb good things like glucose and amino acids, to do their job.

His animal studies have shown that mechanosensor function falters after just three days of high blood pressure.

He also wants to study the role the inflammatory factors TGF-ß and MCP-1 play in arteriole dysregulation.

Both factors are elevated in high blood pressure and implicated in other types of vascular injury.

Preliminary evidence suggests that the factors set up some sort of signaling event that turns mechanosensors off or at least down.

Ironically, impaired autoregulation leads to increased production of the inflammatory factors.

“We have data that argue that TGF-ß can definitely cause these blood vessels to fail. If you apply the cytokine to a healthy kidney, the blood vessel will not respond correctly; wash it off and it does. Now we also have data that if we protect the kidneys from MCP-1, we can improve the function of these vessels,” said Inscho.

He”s looking at the impact of anti-inflammatory drugs pentosan polysulfate as well as mycophenolate mofetil because of existing evidence that their use reduces protein excretion in the urine, a sign of kidney damage.

Rather than as a potential therapy, he views the drugs as tools for helping dissect a complex process.

“Hypertension-related kidney damage is multifaceted, but part of that cascade of progression to injury is functional impairment of that blood vessel. We have established that, I think, unequivocally,” said Inscho.

“The grant will enable us to get more information about normal function and pathology all at the same time,” he added.

The study has been reported in the May issue of American Journal of Physiology – Renal Physiology. (ANI)

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Exercise ‘forestalls osteoporosis’

April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): Physical activity can help forestall osteoporosis, according to Medical College of Georgia researchers.

Declining estrogen levels have long been linked to osteoporosis, but bone density starts to decline years before these levels drop, according to Dr. Joseph Cannon, Kellet Chair in Allied Health Sciences and principal investigator of the National Institute of Aging-funded study. It”s during that time that levels of follicle-stimulating hormone, released by the pituitary gland to help regulate ovarian function, actually increase.

Cannon theorizes that higher levels of FSH decrease bone mineral density by increasing cytokines, regulatory proteins produced by white blood cells. One cytokine in particular, interleukin-1, signals certain cells to transform into osteoclasts, which break down and resorb bone.

“We hypothesize that the higher levels of FSH decrease bone mineral density by influencing the production of cytokines,” said Cannon, who presents his team”s research at the American Physiological Society”s Experimental Biology 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif. April 24-28.

After measuring FSH and bone mineral density in 36 women between the ages of 20 to 50, the researchers correlated higher FSH levels with lower bone mineral density.

When they incubated FSH with white blood cells isolated from the women, it stimulated production of interleukin-1. Moreover, higher circulating levels of IL-1 correlated with lower bone mineral density, if the levels of interleukin-1 inhibitory factors were taken into account.

Additionally, they found that study participants who exercised more than 180 minutes a week retained greater bone density.

“Our work provides more evidence that physical activity is important for maintaining bone density. It”s a case of ’use it or lose it,”” Cannon said, citing his team’s findings that exercise seemed to promote inhibitory factors that help keep interleukin-1 and bone breakdown under control. (ANI)

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Follicle-stimulating hormone decreases bone mineral density during menopause

April 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 26 (ANI): Other than estrogen, another hormone—follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) may also be involved in decreasing bone mineral density during menopause, according to new research at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta, GA.

Diminished bone density is common among menopausal women and raises their risk of osteoporosis, bone fractures and subsequent complications.

Traditionally, studies have focused on therapies that seek to maintain the level of estrogen in the body. This hormone seems to sustain bone health, but it drops to an extremely low level during and after menopause.

Dr. Joseph Cannon said that the level of FSH gradually increases in the five years leading up to menopause, when it reaches its peak and estradiol bottoms out.

Research has indicated that bone density begins to decrease over the same period of time.

In addition, data from animal studies indicated a link between FSH and bone density, which made the researchers to probe whether the increase of FSH has an effect on bone density in humans.

Bone mineral density is a balancing act between bone loss and bone growth involving two types of cells in the body— osteoclasts that break down bone, and osteoblasts that regenerate it.

During menopausal bone loss, the osteoclasts” destructive activity outweighs the osteoblasts” rebuilding activity, resulting in an overall weakening of the bone.

Cytokines, which are secreted by white blood cells such as monocytes, are thought to play a role in this imbalance. One cytokine in particular, interleukin-1 beta (IL-1), is known to activate osteoclasts.

“Our hypothesis was that [FSH] was decreasing bone mineral density by influencing the production or action of cytokines,” said Dr. Cannon.

To test their hypothesis, the researchers conducted a study of 36 women from 20 to 50 years old.

By measuring each woman”s level of FSH and then using a low-energy x-ray to analyse her bone density, the researchers saw that higher levels of FSH among the women were indeed associated with lower bone density.

With the results in hand, the researchers wanted to determine the effects of FSH on a cellular level.

They collected blood samples from the study participants and isolated the monocytes to investigate the effect of FSH on cells outside of the body.

They discovered that the monocytes that make IL-1 have receptors for FSH.

Receptors act like a lock for a key— when the key (FSH) enters the lock (receptor), the cell performs the activity coded by that key.

The researchers determined that FSH stimulates the production of IL-1 if the monocytes have a sufficient number of FSH receptors.

After further analysis, they confirmed that blood FSH levels corresponded to blood levels of IL-1, which indicated that both inside and outside the body, FSH stimulation of monocytes results in the production of IL-1.

On comparing the amount of IL-1 in the participants” blood to their bone density, the researchers found that the higher the level of IL-1, the lower the bone density, when other factors that control IL-1 activity were taken into account.

The study will be presented at the American Physiological Society”s Experimental Biology 2010 conference in Anaheim. (ANI)

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Lung transplant patients may benefit from synthetic peptide

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 25 (ANI): Synthetic peptide may enhance lung transplantation, according to a new research conducted by Medical College of Georgia scientists.

The study has appeared in the March issue of Critical Care Medicine.

Excess fluid and other problems that can occur within 72 hours of a transplant can significantly reduce short-term survival odds and long-term lung function. About 10 percent of patients experience an acute lung injury in the hours after their transplant, killing more than 40 percent of those patients within 30 days.

According to MCG researchers, putting the TIP peptide into the trachea of rat lungs about a half hour before transplantation can nullify the bad result, called ischemic reperfusion injury, and improve oxygenation.

Corresponding author Dr. Rudolf Lucas, vascular biologist in MCG”s Vascular Biology Center, said: “We see the parameters of the transplanted lungs are nearly normal.”

Reactive oxygen species are natural byproducts of oxygen use that can cause cell damage and death at high levels. Stress, such as putting dormant lungs back to work, can increase their levels.

Pointing out that donor lungs may be preserved in a cool, protective solution for several hours Dr. Lucas said: “Suddenly you put the lungs back in a body and you get an oxygen supply which by itself causes a lot of damage, mainly because of reactive oxygen species production.”

A major potential problem immediately after lung transplantation is dysfunction of sodium channels in the alveoli, tiny air sacs where oxygen uptake occurs, impairing the sacs” ability to clear fluid into the lymphatic system. Moreover, researchers have documented an immediate invasion of white blood cells called neutrophils, which also produce reactive oxygen species.

Implicated in these early problems is tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, an inflammation-producing cytokine that helps the body fight infection, which can be deleterious, even deadly, at high levels, stated Dr. Lucas. The lung transplant activates TNF production, causing cells that line the organ”s vasculature and air sacs to produce more reactive oxygen species and block sodium channels.

TNF can also have a polar opposite effect: blocking reactive oxygen species production and increasing sodium uptake. Dr. Lucas” team discovered this site, which binds to specific sugars, nearly a decade ago.

Unfortunately in the case of a lung transplant, the “bad” side is dominant; in fact, researchers from New Jersey Medical School refer to TNF”s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde saga” in an accompanying editorial in Critical Care Medicine.

That”s where the synthetic TIP peptide comes in.

When scientists gave the synthetic peptide to rats undergoing lung transplants, the good side prevailed. Levels of reactive oxygen species and neutrophils dropped and sodium channels rebounded.

Soluble TNF receptors, which block TNF”s “bad” action, already are being used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, in which the immune system attacks joints. MCG researchers have found that blocking this site does not block the positive-action, sugar-binding site.

Dr. Lucas said: “That means we have a physiologically relevant form of this peptide in our body, a cytokine that could help us avoid the problems that lead to ischemic reperfusion injury.” (ANI)

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Wearing a pedometer, meditation can improve adolescents” health

March 16, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 16 (ANI): Simple, low-cost steps like wearing a pedometer to encourage walking or meditating for a few minutes every day can enhance adolescents” health, say researchers.

According to Dr. Vernon Barnes, physiologist at the Medical College of Georgia”s Georgia Prevention Institute, these types of side-effect-free steps can quickly help lower blood pressure, heart rate and even weight, neutralizing today”s unhealthy, upward trends among young people.

In one of three studies presented at the American Psychosomatic Society Annual Meeting in Portland, Ore, Dr. Barnes said a positive attitude and family environment increases the effectiveness of the interventions. The research comparing breathing awareness meditation to health education and life-skills training discovered that all methods improved blood pressure.

Dr. Barnes, who has studied the effect of mediation on cardiovascular health for over a decade at MCG, has documented the improved stress reactivity in black adolescents with high normal blood pressures as well as lower blood pressures in black, inner-city adolescents who meditate twice daily.

Meditation also sharpens the mind for education.

Dr. Barnes said: “When you come to school with a stressed mind, you can”t do as well.

“The benefit of calming your mind is preparing it to learn.”

A review of school records showed meditating adolescents miss fewer days and generally behave better, he pointed out.

Another study demonstrated that the blood pressure of students in a high school-based walking program decreased after just 16 weeks compared with non-participating peers. Dr. Barnes, part of an adult team competing with a group of high school students to see which can walk the farthest, said the pedometer inspired adolescents to walk.

He said: “You think about it: that little extra walking will hopefully benefit your health.”

“It all works together, which makes sense,” he said, looking at the effectiveness of the techniques over just a few months. While decreases in blood pressure were small – a 2.5 point reduction in pedometer wearers compared to a 3.5 point increase in the control group – it”s good momentum.

Dr. Barnes said: “If you could maintain that decrease into your adult years, it may decrease cardiovascular disease risk,”

Researchers also reported reductions in anger and anxiety after a dozen, 50-minute classes on the topics taught by health teachers. Psychosocial factors such as anger are known to contribute to a wide range of health problems including elevated blood pressures and heart disease in adulthood. But Williams LifeSkills workshops helped adolescents learn to analyse a situation before responding, to listen and empathize or even stand firm when necessary. (ANI)

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Kids with fatter midsection at increased cardiovascular disease risk

September 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 12 (ANI): Kids who have more fat around their midsections are at a greater risk of suffering heart disease in later life, suggests a new study.

The study’s researchers suggest that routine waist measurements in obese children could predict which ones had developed risk factors for cardiovascular disease.

“While general obesity certainly has its own set of risks for the heart, we now know that all fat is not created equally,” said Dr. Reda Bassali, an associate professor of pediatrics in the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine and lead author of the study

“What we are asking is whether the children with larger waists already showed signs that put them at higher risk.

“To find out whether children eventually developed cardiovascular disease, we’d have to follow them long term,” Bassali added.

During the study, the researchers analysed188 obese children, ages 7-11, those with the largest waist circumferences.

They found that these kids were three times more likely to have high triglycerides and nearly four times more likely to have lower levels of HDL.

They were also 3.7 times more likely to have high fasting insulin levels.

“What that means is that children with a waist circumference at or above the 90th percentile are at a greater risk of developing the warning signs of cardiovascular disease,” said Bassali.

“Our results indicate that routine clinical measurement of the waist may help clinicians identify which obese children are at a greater risk,” the expert added.

However, researchers said why some people gain weight in the center of their body and others gain it, for instance, in their thighs is still unclear.

“It could be environmental. It could be genetic. It could be a combination of the two,” Bassali added.

The study is published in the International Journal of Pediatric Obesity. (ANI)

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New nanotechnology technique may boost longevity of dental fillings

July 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 2 (ANI): A novel nanotechnology technique can boost the longevity of dental fillings, claims a Medical College of Georgia (MCG) researcher.

The tooth-coloured fillings are usually more attractive than silver ones, but the bonds between the white filling and the tooth quickly age and degrade.

“Dentin adhesives bond well initially, but then the hybrid layer between the adhesive and the dentin begins to break down in as little as one year. When that happens, the restoration will eventually fail and come off the tooth,” said Dr. Franklin Tay, associate professor of endodontics in the MCG School of Dentistry.

He added: “Our adhesives are not as good as we thought they were, and that causes problems for the bonds.”

To make a bond, a dentist etches away some of the dentin’s minerals with phosphoric acid to expose a network of collagen, known as the hybrid layer.

Acid-etching prepares the tooth for application of an adhesive to the hybrid layer so that the resin can latch on to the collagen network, but the imperfect adhesives leave spaces inside the collagen that are not properly infiltrated with resin, leading to the bonds’ failure.

Thus, in order to prevent the aging and degradation of resin-dentin bonding by feeding minerals back into the collagen network, Tay is investigating guided tissue remineralisation.

Guided tissue remineralisation is a new nanotechnology process of growing extremely small, mineral-rich crystals and guiding them into the demineralised gaps between collagen fibres.

Tay got the idea of the technique by examining how crystals form in nature.

“Eggshells and abalone [sea snail] shells are very strong and intriguing. We’re trying to mimic nature, and we’re learning a lot from observing how small animals make their shells,” said Tay.

The crystals, called hydroxyapatite, bond when proteins and minerals interact.

Tay will use calcium phosphate, a mineral that’s the primary component of dentin, enamel and bone, and two protein analogs also found in dentin so he can mimic nature while controlling the size of each crystal.

“When crystals are formed, they don’t have a definite shape, so they are easily guided into the nooks and crannies of the collagen matrix,” he said.

In theory, the crystals should lock the minerals into the hybrid layer, and prevent it from degrading.

If the concept of guided tissue remineralisation works, Tay will create a delivery system to apply the crystals to the hybrid layer after the acid-etching process.

The study has been published in the Journal of the American Dental Association. (ANI)

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How high glucose levels damage blood vessels

May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): Medical College of Georgia researchers have gained fresh insights into how elevated glucose levels, which occur in diabetes, damage blood vessels.

The mechanism can lead to novel strategies for blocking the destruction.

High glucose levels reduce the levels of the powerful vasodilator nitric oxide in blood vessels, a shortfall that increases the risk of high blood pressure and eventual narrows down the vessels.

Rita C. Tostes, physiologist in the MCG School of Medicine, found that decreased ability of blood vessels to relax resulted from increased activity of a natural mechanism for altering protein form and function.

The researchers suspect that increased modification of proteins by a glucose-derived molecule is a player in vascular problems associated with hypertension, stroke and obesity as well.

“We know diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and we think this is one of the reasons,” said Tostes.

In the study conducted over healthy mice, the researchers found that there was an increased activity by O-GlcNAc in the blood vessels, which competes with another mechanism for modifying proteins called phosphorylation.

In blood vessels, phorphorylation modifies the enzyme that produces nitric oxide, called nitric oxide synthase, so that it makes more of the blood vessel dilator.

O-GlcNAc seems to beat phosphorylation to the punch so there is the opposite result.

The longer O-GlcNAc levels were high, the worse the resulting problem, said Victor Lima, a graduate student at the University of Sao Paulo working with Dr. Tostes.

An animal model of hypertension confirmed the finding that the more O-GlcNAc, the more blood vessels contract because these animals had higher O-GlcNAc levels.

“Now we are trying to see why this is happening and what comes first. Is increased blood pressure leading to changed O-GlcNAc or are augmented levels of O-GlcNAc contributing to the change we see in the vasculature of hypertensives?” said Dr. Tostes.

“If we know how this changes vascular function, we can understand some of the dysfunction that we see in diabetes,” she added.

The study was presented at American Society of Hypertension 24th Annual Scientific Program in San Francisco. (ANI)

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Agent Orange exposure ‘raises prostate cancer recurrence risk’

April 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 21 (ANI): A new study has revealed that people who have been exposed to Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant used during the Vietnam War, are at an increased risk of aggressive recurrence of prostate cancer.

Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War, when an estimated 21,136,000 gal. of Agent Orange were sprayed across South Vietnam.

About 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

Of 1495 veterans who underwent radical prostatectomy to remove their cancerous prostates, 206 exposed to Agent Orange had nearly a 50 percent increased risk of their cancer recurring despite the fact that their cancer seemed relatively nonaggressive at the time of surgery.

The recurring cancer had doubled the level of prostate specific antigen, or PSA- an indicator of aggressiveness.

“There is something about the biology of these cancers that are associated with prior Agent Orange exposure that is causing them to be more aggressive. We need to get the word out,” said Dr. Martha Terris, chief of urology at the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Center in Augusta and professor of urology at the Medical College of Georgia School of Medicine.

“Not only are their recurrence rates higher but their cancers are coming back and growing much faster when they do come back,” she added. (ANI)

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How roughage keeps colon cancer at bay

April 14, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, April 14 (ANI): A high-fiber diet has long been considered beneficial in staving off colon cancer. Now, researchers at Medical College of Georgia have found that roughage keeps the disease at bay by activating a receptor with cancer killing potential.

The GPR109A receptor is activated by butyrate, a metabolite produced by fiber-eating bacteria in the colon.

The receptor puts a double-whammy on cancer by sending signals that trigger cell death, or apoptosis, and shutting down a protein that causes inflammation, a precursor to cancer.

“We know the receptor is silenced in cancer but it’s not like the gene goes away,” said Dr. Vadivel Ganapathy, co-author and chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the MCG School of Medicine.

Cancer shuts down the receptor by chemically modifying its gene through a process called DNA methylation.

It’s a typical for cancer to turn genes off to suit its purpose, which is why DNA methylation inhibitors already are under study for a variety of cancers.

However, cancer patients likely also need something to ensure the receptor gets activated by butyrate, such as eating more roughage or, more likely, getting mega doses of butyrate or a compound with similar properties, Dr. Ganapathy said.

One of those activators, niacin, a B-complex vitamin, led to his discovery of the relationship between butyrate and GPR109A.

The study has been reported in the April issue of Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Schizophrenia linked to diabetes

March 31, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): Medical College of Georgia researchers have found a link between schizophrenia and type 2 diabetes.

In a study of 50 people newly-diagnosed with schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder with no other known risk factors, Dr. Brian Kirkpatrick, vice chair of the MCG Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior, found that 16 percent had either diabetes or an abnormal rate of glucose metabolism.

In a similar size control group of people without schizophrenia, none had signs of or had developed the disease.

“These findings point toward there being some shared environmental factors or genetic factors between the development of schizophrenia and diabetes,” he said.

To determine whether there was a link between schizophrenia and diabetes, Dr. Kirkpatrick and colleagues at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the University of Maryland administered a two-hour oral glucose test to patients who had not yet been placed on anti-psychotic medication.

Catching them before prescriptive treatment was important because researchers already knew that some of the most effective schizophrenia drugs also cause rapid weight gain – a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.

“We know the medicine causes problems but we wanted to know whether the disease also causes them,” he said.

Schizophrenia symptoms include memory and attention problems, hallucinations, disorganized thinking and behaviour and delusions. Psychotic symptoms typically start in late adolescence and early adulthood.

However, researchers believe that developmental abnormalities they don’t yet know about also increase diabetes risk.

Dr. Kirkpatrick presented his findings at the International Congress on Schizophrenia Research in San Diego March 28-April 1. (ANI)

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Missing or mutated ‘clock’ gene ‘ups vascular disease risk’

March 26, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 26 (ANI): Researchers at Medical College of Georgia have found that circadian clocks that set the rhythmic motion of our bodies for wakeful days and sleepy nights can also set us up for vascular disease when broken.

During the study, they found that mice with mutated or missing ‘clock’ genes were prone to thick, inflexible blood vessels with narrow passageways, unhealthy changes typically associated with risk factors such as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol.

“Having a bad or broken clock seems to promote vascular disease,” said Dr. Daniel Rudic, vascular biologist in the MCG Schools of Medicine and Graduate Studies and the study’s corresponding author.

The findings suggest increased disease risk for those with mutated clocks, shift workers whose schedule are routinely in conflict with their natural rhythms, as well as others with poor sleep patterns. They also support the merit of developing time-released meds that are in sync with circadian rhythms.

Inside blood vessels, researchers found that clocks regulate key signaling that enables blood vessel dilation and remodeling.

Mice with missing or mutated clock genes have significantly less AKT, an enzyme that promotes the blood-vessel relaxing molecule nitric oxide, and less of nitric oxide precursor eNOS.

In animal models of vascular disease, the altered or missing clocks dramatically accelerated the unhealthy vascular response. In aged mice, the response is even worse, including a predisposition for developing clots.

Yet mice with mutated rather than missing clock gene fared much better in normal light-dark cycles than those in constant darkness. It was only in constant darkness that vascular injury occurred.

“The dysfunction is clearly light-cycle dependent, demonstrating these effects are related to circadian rhythm,” Dr. Rudic said.

The study is published in this week’s issue of Circulation. (ANI)

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Lack of vitamin D may make teens fat

March 13, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 13 (ANI): Lack of vitamin D is not only bad for the bones, it may also lead to fatter adolescents, according to a new study.he study of more than 650 teens age 14-19 has found that those who reported higher vitamin D intakes had lower overall body fat and lower amounts of the fat in the abdomen, a type of fat known as visceral fat, which has been associated with health risks such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and hypertension.

The group with the lowest vitamin D intake, black females, had higher percentages of both body fat and visceral fat, while black males had the lowest percentages of body and visceral fat, even though their vitamin D intake was below the recommended levels. Only one group – white males – was getting the recommended minimum intake of vitamin D.

“This study was a cross-section so, while it cannot prove that higher intake of vitamin D caused the lower body fat, we know there is a relationship that needs to be explored further,” said Dr. Yanbin Dong, a molecular geneticist and cardiologist at the Medical College of Georgia Prevention Institute.

Potential study participants had their weekday and weekend diets tracked by researchers seven times during a three-month period.

Those who provided at least four diet reports were included in the final group of 659.

Body fat percentages were measured by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry scans, which can measure total body composition. Visceral fat was measured in a subset of 432 teens.

The findings were resented this week at the American Heart Association’s Joint 49th Conference on Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention and Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism in Palm Harbor, Fla. (ANI)

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Soon, simple blood test to detect Alzheimer’s disease

March 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 12 (ANI): It may soon be possible to detect Alzheimer’s disease with a simple blood test, say researchers.

The team from the University of Georgia, the Charlie Norwood VA Medical Centre in Augusta and the Medical College of Georgia have found a direct relationship between two specific antibodies and the severity of Alzheimer’s disease symptoms.

They found that concentration of two specific proteins that are involved in the immune response increases as the severity of dementia increases.

“We found a strong and consistent relationship between two particular antibodies and the level of impairment,” said study co-author L. Stephen Miller, professor and director of clinical psychology training in the UGA Franklin College of Arts and Sciences.

“The finding brings us closer to our ultimate goal of developing a blood test that can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease or potentially identify if someone is at higher risk for the disease,” he added.

During the study, the team focused on antibodies that the body creates in response to two proteins that are associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

One protein, known as amyloid-beta, forms the plaques that are evident in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s upon autopsy. The other protein, known as RAGE, is involved in the normal aging process but is expressed at higher levels in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

“Alzheimer’s is an inflammatory disease of the brain, and these two antibodies give us a way to measure that inflammation,” said Shyamala Mruthinti, research pharmacologist at the VA Medical Centre and adjunct professor at MCG.

“Using them as an early diagnostic marker may allow us to start drug treatment early, when it’s most effective, to increase the patient’s quality of life,” he added.

To further test the strength of the relationship, the researchers are now working with a sample that controls for other factors that have the potential to influence levels of the two antibodies, such as diabetes and heart disease.

The study appears in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences. (ANI)

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