Scientists have for the first time sequenced and reconstructed the genomes of most of the microbes in the gut of a premature newborn and documented how the microbe populations changed over time.
Further studies involving more infants could eventua…
New Rochelle, NY, January 4, 2011 — Lowering the body temperature of patients soon after they have suffered a severe brain injury may reduce neurologic complications and improve outcomes. The safety of therapeutic hypothermia for traumatic …
Patients who receive a liver transplant due to alcoholic liver disease need to demonstrate periods of abstinence and often attend addiction treatment before transplantation. However, alcohol use disorders can recur, as can other diseases requiring t…
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have completed the first survey of the entire human genome for genes that affect the susceptibility of individuals to developing clinical depression. George S. Zubenko, M.D., Ph.D., professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and adjunct professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon University and his team have located a number of chromosomal regions they say hold the genetic keys to a variety of mental illnesses, including major depression and certain addictions. The survey was done in 81 families identified by individuals with recurrent, early-onset, major depressive disorder (RE-MDD), a severe form of depression that runs in families. The Pitt team’s findings are published today in the American Journal of Medical Genetics.
Surgeons at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) have instituted a new clinical protocol that has the potential to redefine the standard of care for lung transplant patients. Bucking conventional thought that successful lung transplantation can only be achieved with a three-punch assault on the immune system, the new protocol is a departure from the triple-drug therapy in place at nearly every other transplant center.
Cooling body temperature to levels consistent with hypothermia improves survival when induced after cardiac arrest and also promotes growth factors important for the brain’s recovery, suggests a study performed by researchers in the department of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Preliminary results of their study were reported today at the 2003 Annual Meeting of the Society of Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) in Boston.
According to a new study, 97 percent of patients who underwent laparoscopic Roux-en Y gastric bypass surgery for obesity had resolution or improvement of their type 2 diabetes mellitus. The study examined 1,150 patients over a five-year period following their LGBP surgeries. Of those patients in the study, 240 (21 percent) had type 2 diabetes mellitus and 192 of the 240 patients (80 percent) were available for follow-up.
Millions of people suffering from diabetes mellitus may be spared the ordeal of pricking their fingers several times a day to test blood sugar levels, thanks to a breakthrough by University of Pittsburgh researchers who have developed a non-invasive method to measure the glucose level in bodily fluids.
Women and men who have stomach reduction surgery to lose weight may be losing bone even when they take daily calcium supplements, putting them at risk for osteoporosis and bone fracture. These findings from a University of Pittsburgh study were presented Sunday in San Diego at the American Society of Nutritional Sciences program, part of the Experimental Biology 2003 meeting.
Researchers have found that a recently discovered gene plays an essential role in mediating apoptosis, or cell death, in colorectal cancer cells. The gene, PUMA, or p53 up-regulated modulator of apoptosis, is controlled by p53 ? a tumor-suppressing gene that prevents normal cells from turning into life-threatening tumor cells. Previous research has determined that damage to p53 is fundamental to the development of a vast majority of cancers, and inactivation of the growth-controlling function of p53 is critical to the growth and spread of most cancers.
Elderly men and women with normal body weight still may be at risk for developing type 2 diabetes if they have large amounts of muscle fat or visceral abdominal fat, according to a University of Pittsburgh study published in the February issue of the journal Diabetes Care. “Our study found that, even though an elderly person may not be overweight, he or she might still be at risk for developing diabetes,” said Bret H. Goodpaster, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh division of endocrinology and metabolism and principal investigator of the study. “An important factor is where in the body their excess fat is stored.”
Large doses of a bone anabolic hormone called parathyroid hormone-related protein, PTHrP, increases spine bone mineral density in post-menopausal women by almost five percent in only three months, according to a study at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.