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. Johns Hopkins biomedical engineers, working with colleagues in Korea, have produced a laboratory chip with nanoscopic grooves and ridges capable of growing cardiac tissue that more closely resembles natural heart muscle. http://www.physorg.com/news180116595.html Nanotechnology Tue, 15 Dec 2009 16:24:23 EST news180116595 Almost a century after it was discovered in fruit flies with notches in their wings, the Notch signalling pathway may come to play an important role in the recovery from heart attacks. In a study published today in Circulation Research, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, are the first to prove that this signalling pathway targets heart muscle cells and thus reveal its crucial role in heart development and repair. http://www.physorg.com/news179662276.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:48:16 EST news179662276 A new study shows that muscle cells grown in the lab can restore an intestine's ability to squeeze shut properly. The work, performed in dogs and rats, might ultimately help treat patients with conditions such as gastric reflux and fecal incontinence. http://www.physorg.com/news179160426.html Medicine & Health Fri, 04 Dec 2009 14:47:57 EST news179160426 In order to maintain muscle strength with age, cells must rid themselves of the garbage that accumulates in them over time, just as it does in any household, according to a new study in the December issue of Cell Metabolism. In the case of cells, that waste material includes spent organelles, toxic clumps of proteins, and pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news178892532.html Medicine & Health Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:00:02 EST news178892532 Researchers from the University of California, San Diego recently offered the sharpest-yet picture of how core biochemical pathways in skeletal muscle cells and fat cells are altered in people who suffer from insulin resistance -- a primary defect in type 2 diabetes and obesity. Taking a systems biology approach, the bioengineers and medical researchers also determined how a common class of drugs for treating insulin resistance -- TZDs -- alter these same core pathways. This led the team to uncover previously unknown effects of TZDs and insights that could lead to improved drug therapies for insulin resistance. http://www.physorg.com/news178200964.html Medicine & Health Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:16:46 EST news178200964 A protein long thought to be a secondary regulator in the heart's response to stressors like hypertension actually appears to be a primary regulator according to researchers from the Center for Translational Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University. The data will be presented in the Late Breaking Science session at the American Heart Associations Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla. http://www.physorg.com/news177605812.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:10:18 EST news177605812 When muscle cells need repair, they use odor-detecting tools found in the nose to start the process, researchers have discovered. http://www.physorg.com/news177598122.html Biology Mon, 16 Nov 2009 12:49:29 EST news177598122 Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, have identified a key protein that promotes the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension in humans and mice. This groundbreaking discovery has implications for future drug therapies that may extend the life of patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension and prevent the need for lung transplantation, currently the only cure for this debilitating disease. http://www.physorg.com/news175701828.html Medicine & Health Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:05:13 EST news175701828 Modern tissue engineering developed at the University of Michigan could improve the function of prosthetic hands and possibly restore the sense of touch for injured patients. http://www.physorg.com/news174747079.html Medicine & Health Wed, 14 Oct 2009 14:10:01 EST news174747079 The source and mechanisms underlying the abnormal heart beats that initiate atrial fibrillation (Afib), the most common type of abnormal heart beat, have not been well determined. However, a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, has now identified a population of cells that are like pigment producing cells in the skin (melanocytes) in the atria of the heart and pulmonary veins of mice and humans and uncovered evidence in mice that these cells contribute to Afib. http://www.physorg.com/news174591496.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 19:00:01 EST news174591496 (PhysOrg.com) -- By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living "heart patch" to repair heart tissue damaged by disease. http://www.physorg.com/news174480930.html Medicine & Health Sun, 11 Oct 2009 11:56:10 EST news174480930 University of Washington (UW) researchers have succeeded in engineering human tissue patches free of some problems that have stymied stem-cell repair for damaged hearts. http://www.physorg.com/news174139339.html Medicine & Health Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:02:58 EST news174139339 Recent studies conducted by Dr. Eric Blough and his colleagues at Marshall University have shown that use of the common pain reliever acetaminophen may help prevent age-associated muscle loss and other conditions. http://www.physorg.com/news172944205.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Sep 2009 17:06:19 EST news172944205 Geckos and other lizards have long been known for their incredible ability to shed their tails as a decoy for predators, but little is known about the movements and what controls the tail once it separates from the lizard's body. http://www.physorg.com/news171658028.html Biology Wed, 09 Sep 2009 07:35:47 EST news171658028 The antioxidant quercetin is increasingly being marketed as a supplement that boosts athletic performance, but a new University of Georgia study finds that it is no better than a placebo. http://www.physorg.com/news171193319.html Medicine & Health Thu, 03 Sep 2009 11:00:02 EST news171193319 A study from the Center for Molecular Genetics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine shows that a gene called HPRT plays an important role in setting the program by which primitive or precursor cells decide to become normal nerve cells in the human brain. This unconventional view of metabolic genes known as "housekeeping" genes is now online at the journal Molecular Therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news169985095.html Medicine & Health Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:20:03 EST news169985095 Crosstalk between cells lining the lung (epithelial cells) and airway smooth muscle cells is important in lung development. However, it has also been shown to contribute to several lung diseases, including asthma and pulmonary hypertension. http://www.physorg.com/news169750998.html Medicine & Health Tue, 18 Aug 2009 02:10:01 EST news169750998 New research has provided insight into the molecular regulators of the function of muscle cells in the walls of blood vessels, i.e., vascular smooth muscle cells. Specifically, the acquisition and/or maintenance of the ability of VSMCs to contract and relax, thereby modulating blood pressure and distributing blood to the areas of the body that need it most, was found to be controlled in mice by two small RNA molecules known miR-143 and miR-145. http://www.physorg.com/news169749696.html Medicine & Health Mon, 17 Aug 2009 18:20:01 EST news169749696 (PhysOrg.com) -- Supplementing obese rats with the nutrient carnitine helps the animals to clear the extra sugar in their blood, something they had trouble doing on their own, researchers at Duke University Medical Center report. http://www.physorg.com/news169300987.html Chemistry Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:10:48 EST news169300987 Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) usually experience significant muscle loss, a symptom traditionally considered to be a secondary complication of the devastating genetic disease. However, a recent study by Dr. Basil Petrof reverses the equation: his results show that muscle atrophy and weakness may be a primary symptom caused by the effects of CFTR gene mutations on the muscle itself. Dr. Petrof's findings will be published on July 31 in Public Library of Science -- Genetics. http://www.physorg.com/news168270197.html Medicine & Health Fri, 31 Jul 2009 15:00:01 EST news168270197 (PhysOrg.com) -- Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have shown that they can engineer mouse and human cells to produce brown fat, a natural energy-burning type of fat that counteracts obesity. If such a strategy can be developed for use in people, the scientists say, it could open a novel approach to treating obesity and diabetes. http://www.physorg.com/news168094278.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:40:01 EST news168094278 It is an amazing sight: What looks like a tiny beating heart is actually a piece of synthetic, gauze-like mesh, barely the size of a fingernail, floating in a Petri dish. And yet it keeps squeezing away, nice and rhythmically. http://www.physorg.com/news167380516.html Medicine & Health Tue, 21 Jul 2009 07:35:45 EST news167380516 Every time a neuron sends a signal - to move a muscle or form a memory, for example - tiny membrane-bound compartments, called vesicles, dump neurotransmitters into the synapse between the cells. Researchers report that this process, which is fundamental to the workings of the nervous system, relies on a simple mechanical reality: Tension in the axon of the presynaptic neuron is required. http://www.physorg.com/news167330058.html Medicine & Health Mon, 20 Jul 2009 19:10:02 EST news167330058 (PhysOrg.com) -- A newly discovered mechanism controls whether muscle cells in blood vessels hasten the development of both atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease, according to an article published online today in the journal Nature. http://www.physorg.com/news166020056.html Medicine & Health Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:41:26 EST news166020056 (PhysOrg.com) -- Harvard Stem Cell Institute researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have identified the earliest master human heart stem cell from human embryonic stem cells - ISL1+ progenitors - that give rise to a family of cells that form the essential portions of the human heart. http://www.physorg.com/news165680045.html Medicine & Health Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:14:48 EST news165680045 A UCSF study for the treatment of heart failure after heart attack found that the extract derived from bone marrow cells is as effective as therapy using bone marrow stem cells for improving cardiac function, decreasing the formation of scar tissue and improving cardiac pumping capacity after heart attack. http://www.physorg.com/news165512730.html Medicine & Health Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:00:01 EST news165512730 Scientists from King's College London and Imperial College London believe they have discovered a key element in the development of chronic asthma. Their research has been published in a new paper in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to explain why the structure and function of asthmatic airways are changed or ''remodelled'' and how this contributes to chronic asthma. http://www.physorg.com/news164338177.html Medicine & Health Tue, 16 Jun 2009 04:00:01 EST news164338177 A heart muscle protein can replace its missing skeletal muscle counterpart to give mice with myopathy a long and active life, show Nowak et al. The findings will be published online on Monday, May 25, 2009 and will appear in the June 1, 2009 print issue of the Journal of Cell Biology. http://www.physorg.com/news162465042.html Biology Mon, 25 May 2009 10:17:20 EST news162465042 Stem cells play a role in heart muscle rejuvenation by attracting cells from the body that develop into heart muscle cells. They have been successfully used to halt or reverse cardiac injury following heart attack, but not to prevent injury before it occurs. http://www.physorg.com/news161528262.html Biology Thu, 14 May 2009 13:58:22 EST news161528262 A potential vaccine for Alzheimer's disease also has been shown in mice to slow the weakening of muscles associated with inclusion body myositis, a disorder that affects the elderly. http://www.physorg.com/news161439371.html Medicine & Health Wed, 13 May 2009 13:16:42 EST news161439371