One of astronomy's big questions is why galaxies forming as recently as 1 billion years after the Big Bang contain so much dust. The leading hypothesis is that supernovae, stars that explode at the end of their lives, contain large amounts of metal-enriched material that, in turn, harbors key ingredients of dust, like silicon, iron and carbon.
Investigators from the Harvard School of Public Health and the University of Puerto Rico evaluated the association between different measures of obesity and risk of periodontal disease. They analyzed data from 36,903 men from the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who were free of reported periodontal disease at the start of follow-up, and followed them for up to 16 years (1986-2002).
Periodontal (gum) disease is a chronic inflammation initiated by bacteria that affect the gums and bone supporting the teeth, and may eventually result in tissue and tooth loss. It is similar to other chronic inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, where inflammation causes tissue damage and is responsible for the disease.
To date, the prevention of gum disease has been limited to successful oral hygiene and regular professional care. However, despite these preventive actions, in susceptible individuals with a high inflammatory response, plaque control is not enough to prevent disease.
Human embryonic stem cells (hESC) provide a potentially unlimited source of oral mucosal tissues that may revolutionize the treatment of oral diseases. When fully exploited in the future, this source of cells will be able to produce functional tissues to treat a broad variety of oral diseases. However, little is known about how hESC can be developed into complex, multilayer oral tissues that line the gums, cheeks, lips, and other intra-oral sites. However, the use of hES cells for oral application faces numerous obstacles that must be overcome before their therapeutic potential can be realized.
Scientists at the 87th General Session of the International Association for Dental Research, convening today in Miami Beach, report new studies on the connection between oral disease and systemic disease. A recurring theme is the relationship between periodontal (gum) disease and infant prematurity, diabetes, or stroke.
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that parasites hijack host-cell proteins to ensure their survival and proliferation, suggesting new ways to control the diseases they cause. The study, appearing this week online in Science, was led by Doron Greenbaum, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pharmacology in the Penn School of Medicine.
Risky behaviors such as not using condoms or having sex with multiple people put young adults at risk for contracting sexually transmitted diseases, but perhaps not as much as the characteristics of their sexual partners, University of Florida researchers say.
The findings, which UF and University of Pittsburgh researchers report in the April issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, could help health-care providers better screen patients for STD risks, said Stephanie A. S. Staras, Ph.D., a UF assistant professor of epidemiology and health policy research in the UF College of Medicine.
A small, dense object only twelve miles in diameter is responsible for this beautiful X-ray nebula that spans 150 light years. At the center of this image made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a very young and powerful pulsar, known as PSR B1509-58, or B1509 for short. The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand.
PHILADELPHIA –- A collaboration of University of Pennsylvania and University of Wisconsin chemists and anesthesiologists have identified a fluorescent anesthetic compound that will assist researchers in obtaining more precise information about how anesthetics work in the body and will provide a means to more rapidly test new anesthetic compounds in the search for safer and more effective drugs.
The study is published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DURHAM, N.C. – Duke University researchers have identified a receptor on the surface of cells that may give them another avenue of attack against glioblastoma, the most common and most deadly type of brain cancer.
The neurokinin 1 receptor (NK1R), which may be expressed in all human glioblastoma cells, may prove to be an appropriate target for therapies aimed at treating these brain tumors, according to a study led by researchers in the Duke Department of Anesthesiology and the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke.
OAK RIDGE, Tenn., April 3, 2009 -- By identifying a novel compound that primes a plant's immune system, researchers at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Chicago may be on a path to developing disease-resistant plants.
In a paper published in Science, a team that includes Tim Tschaplinski of the Department of Energy's ORNL reports that azelaic acid has a role in priming the immunity response in Arabidopsis, a small flowering plant related to cabbage and mustard. This plant, commonly known as thale cress or mouse-ear cress, is widely used as a model organism for studying higher plants.
San Antonio … Researchers are one step closer to understanding the neurobiology that allows people to successfully learn motivated behaviors by associating environmental cues with rewarding outcomes, according to a study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences' online Early Edition. Carlos Paladini, assistant professor of neuroscience at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) and UTSA graduate student Collin Lobb collaborated with researchers at The University of Washington at Seattle to study the firing patterns of midbrain dopamine neurons in mice during reward-based learning.
A team of researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital Center for Engineering in Medicine (MGH-CEM) has found the first evidence of cell-to-cell communication by amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, rather than by known protein signaling agents such as growth factors or cytokines. Their report will appear in an upcoming issue of the FASEB Journal and has been released online.
