http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Is the indefinite expansion of adult cells possible without recourse to stem cell intermediates? The team led by Michael Sieweke at the Centre d'immunologie de Marseille Luminy, France has proved that this is the case by achieving the ex vivo regeneration for several months of macrophages, specialized cells in the immune system. Published in Science on November 6, 2009, this discovery could be applied to other cell types. http://www.physorg.com/news177618528.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:30:01 EST news177618528 The continual presence in the air of the microbe-derived molecule LPS promotes asthma in some individuals. What prevents inhalation of LPS from promoting asthma in most individuals is not well understood. However, researchers have now ascribed this function in mice to a population of lung immune cells known as lung interstitial macrophages (IMs); this is the first in vivo function described for these cells. http://www.physorg.com/news177059033.html Medicine & Health Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:20:03 EST news177059033 Professor Albert Descoteaux's team at Centre INRS - Institut Armand-Frappier, Canada, has gained a better understanding of how the Leishmania donovani parasite manages to outsmart the human immune system and proliferate with impunity, causing visceral leishmaniasis, a chronic infection that is potentially fatal if left untreated. This scientific breakthrough was recently published in PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news175520274.html Medicine & Health Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:00:01 EST news175520274 Smoking is a risk factor for active tuberculosis (TB) disease, according to a new study on TB incidence in Taiwan. http://www.physorg.com/news170307353.html Medicine & Health Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:50:01 EST news170307353 Malaria kills anywhere from one to three million people around the world annually and affects the lives of up to 500 million more. Yet until now, scientists did not fully understand exactly how the process that caused the disease's severe hallmark fevers began. http://www.physorg.com/news170052624.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:20:01 EST news170052624 Two new studies reveal a way to increase the body's appetite for gobbling up the cancer stem cells responsible for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a form of cancer with a particularly poor survival rate. The key is targeting a protein on the surface of those cells that sends a "don't eat me" signal to the macrophage immune cells that serve as a first line of defense, according to the reports in the July 24th issue of the journal Cell. http://www.physorg.com/news167571471.html Medicine & Health Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:00:04 EST news167571471 A team of Harvard scientists has taken an important first step toward the development of new treatments to help people with HIV battle Mycobacterium tuberculosis (TB) infection. In their report, appearing in the July 2009 print issue of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology they describe how HIV interferes with the cellular and molecular mechanisms used by the lungs to fight TB infection. This information is crucial for researchers developing treatments to help people with HIV prevent or recover from TB infection. http://www.physorg.com/news165576357.html Medicine & Health Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:40:01 EST news165576357 Focusing HIV drug development on immune cells called macrophages instead of traditionally targeted T cells could bring us closer to eradicating the disease, according to new research from University of Florida and five other institutions. http://www.physorg.com/news162670146.html Medicine & Health Wed, 27 May 2009 19:21:49 EST news162670146 For decades, microbiologists assumed that macrophages, immune cells that can engulf and poison bacteria and other pathogens, killed microbes by damaging their DNA. A new study from the University of Illinois disproves that. http://www.physorg.com/news160048583.html Biology Mon, 27 Apr 2009 10:56:58 EST news160048583 Kupffer cells, resident tissue macrophages that line the liver sinusoids, play a key role in modulating inflammation in a number of experimental models of liver injury. Since Kupffer cells represent only a small portion of the entire liver cell population, greatly outnumbered by the parenchymal cells, Kupffer cell isolation faces major technical obstacles. Laser capture microdissection (LCM) offers a method of isolating a single cell type from specific regions of tissue sections. http://www.physorg.com/news159188749.html Medicine & Health Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:06:26 EST news159188749 It's called the obesity paradox. Although obese people are more apt to suffer from inflammatory diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, and stroke, they are also more likely to survive a major attack caused by one of those conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news154882304.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:52:58 EST news154882304 Masses of immune cells that form as a hallmark of tuberculosis (TB) have long been thought to be the body's way of trying to protect itself by literally walling off the bacteria. But a new study in the January 9th issue of the journal Cell, a Cell Press publication, offers evidence that the TB bacteria actually sends signals that encourage the growth of those organized granuloma structures, and for good reason: each granuloma serves as a kind of hub for the infectious bugs in the early stages of infection, allowing them to expand further and spread throughout the body. http://www.physorg.com/news150643255.html Biology Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:20:55 EST news150643255 St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have discovered a mechanism by which intracellular pathogens can shut down one of the body's key chemical weapons against them: nitric oxide. The researchers found that the microbes block nitric oxide production by subverting the biochemical machinery used by immune cells called macrophages to produce the chemical. http://www.physorg.com/news144946838.html Medicine & Health Mon, 03 Nov 2008 15:00:38 EST news144946838 By killing off "angry" immune cells that take up residence in obese fat and muscle tissue, researchers have shown that they can rapidly reverse insulin resistance in obese mice. The findings reported in the October Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, suggest that treatments aimed at specific subsets of the so-called macrophage cells might offer a very effective new antidiabetic therapy, according to the researchers. http://www.physorg.com/news142605891.html Biology Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:44:51 EST news142605891