DURHAM, N.C. — A tiny light source and sensors at the end of an endoscope may provide a more accurate way to identify pre-cancerous cells in the lining of the esophagus.
Developed by biomedical engineers at Duke University and successfully t…
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There has been controversy about whether life originated in a hot or cold environment, and about whether enough time has elapsed for life to have evolved to its present complexity.
But new research at the University of North C…
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — A new study by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Norwegian researchers has found that women with anorexia nervosa are much more likely to have both unplanned pregnancies and induced abortions than women who don’t …
Two children, both age 3, enroll in publicly funded preschool. But they may have vastly different experiences: One child may attend preschool for 8 hours a day and be taught by a teacher with a bachelor’s degree while the other child may be in presc…
CHAPEL HILL — Flu vaccine will soon be available at local pharmacies and doctor’s offices, and government officials are urging everyone over 6 months of age to receive it. This year’s vaccine protects against H1N1 and two other strains of season…
Taking care of chronically ill loved ones over long periods stresses caregivers, as everyone knows, but a new study provides strong new evidence that such continuing stress boosts the risk of age-related diseases by prematurely aging caregivers’ immune systems. Levels of a damaging compound known as a proinflammatory cytokine not only increased considerably faster among those taking care of ailing spouses but also continued to increase faster for years after the spouses died.
Last March, a multi-center national study made headlines by concluding that taking a combination of the hormones estrogen and progestin did not improve the quality of life for women who are free of menopause-related symptoms but did expose them to a slightly higher risk of heart attacks, strokes and breast cancer. For that reason, many medical scientists began recommending against the combined therapy in the absence of such symptoms, saying the risks of estrogen plus progestin outweighed the benefits.
Biologists have discovered what appear to be fundamental differences in the physical properties of the genetic material known as chromatin. Chromatin packages DNA into cells, and the scientists found the differences between chromatin that packages genes and the chromatin that packages DNA with regulatory or unknown functions. The variation represents a previously unrecognized level of genomic organization and complexity, the scientists report, one that may exist in all cells with nuclei.
All biological reactions within human cells depend on enzymes. Their power as catalysts enables biological reactions to occur usually in milliseconds. But how slowly would these reactions proceed spontaneously, in the absence of enzymes – minutes, hours, days? And why even pose the question? One scientist who studies these issues is Dr. Richard Wolfenden, Alumni distinguished professor of biochemistry and biophysics and chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. In 1998, he reported a biological transformation deemed “absolutely essential” in creating the building blocks of DNA and RNA would take 78 million years in water. “Now we’ve found one that’s 10,000 times slower than that,” Wolfenden said.
A new study offers the first molecular explanation of how the body metabolizes and detoxifies cocaine and heroin. “We show for the first time how humans initiate the breakdown and clearance of these dangerous narcotics,” said one of the lead scientists. “This work also has two potential applications. First, our results can be used to generate an efficient treatment for cocaine overdose. Second, the same system we describe can be engineered to detoxify chemical weapons, including sarin, soman, tabun and VX gases.”
Drivers talking on cell phones are nearly twice as likely as other drivers involved in crashes to have rear-end collisions, according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study. Crashes involving cell phone use, however, are less likely to result in fatalities or serious injuries than crashes not involving the devices. Almost 60 percent of licensed N.C. drivers have used a cell phone while behind the wheel, investigators from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center (HSRC) found.
Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have helped identify a large, undetected epidemic of the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia in China. The new findings appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The collaboration involving UNC, the University of Chicago and researchers in China points to a chlamydia epidemic that developed in that country during the last 20 years ? and represents the first nationwide study of its kind to combine reported behavior with physical evidence of the consequences of sexual activity.
Inmates infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, engaged in unprotected sex both before imprisonment and after their release at “exceedingly high rates,” according to a new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine study. Seventy-eight percent of N.C. men and women prisoners carrying the virus who had a main sex partner reported unprotected sex with that person in the year before they were locked up, the study showed. Twenty-six percent of them interviewed again soon after release admitted to already having sex without condoms with their main sex partners.
Boys born lean have an increased risk of elevated blood pressure in their teens if they add a lot of weight between ages 8 and 15, researchers report in today’s rapid access issue of Hypertension: Journal of the American Heart Association. “The boys who were thinnest at birth and who gained the most weight during childhood and adolescence were the ones who had the greatest risk of high blood pressure,” says lead author Linda S. Adair, Ph.D., professor of nutrition at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
Use of such protective equipment as faceguards and modified “safety balls” can significantly cut the number of injuries to children and adolescents playing organized baseball, a major new University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill study concludes. The equipment cannot eliminate injuries entirely, the investigation shows, but researchers recommend the special balls and face protection even though they say the incidence of serious injuries in the sport is already low.
Conducted by UNC Injury Prevention Research Center-affiliated scientists, the study involved analyzing injury information resulting from three years, or more than 6.7 million “player-seasons,” of Little League participation. It is the largest and most comprehensive study of its kind ever done, the scientists say.
Before women undergo induced abortions, doctors should — as part of the informed consent process — offer them information about the subsequent small but apparently real increased risk of pre-term delivery and depression, researchers say. Clinicians also should mention the unproven possibility that their chance of developing breast cancer could climb slightly later in life. Those are conclusions a team of doctors reached after completing a review of the best studies of the long-term physical and psychological health effects of intentional abortions.
In an unusual disease known as Bloom syndrome, patients exhibit an extremely high incidence of cancers in many tissues. In fact, some experts consider Bloom syndrome to be among the most cancer-prone hereditary diseases known. Although the illness is rare, it fascinates scientists since it can teach them more about how cancers arise and how the body normally suppresses them. Information gleaned from studies of the syndrome should provide insights into other forms of cancer, they say. Now, working with fruit flies on the gene which, when mutated, causes Bloom syndrome in humans, scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have discovered more about the key mechanisms by which DNA inside cells is repaired.
Baby boomers will increase Medicare and other medical expenditures as they age but not nearly as much as some analysts have feared, according to a new study. The study, which appears in the January issue of the Journal of Gerontology, suggests that by living longer, many baby boomers will pass the ages at which the most “heroic,” and hence expensive, efforts are made to prolong their lives. Once members of that generation survive into their mid-80s or so and beyond, many medical procedures will become too risky for their older bodies and will be avoided in many cases.
