An Injury That Heals
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Louis Pasteur said that “chance favors the prepared mind.” For Prof. Nava Dekel of the Weizmann Institute’s Biological Regulation Department, some completely unexpected results of biopsies performed on women with fertility problems have led to a new path of scientific discovery that may hold hope for women trying to conceive.
Dekel and a research team that includes Drs. Yael Kalma and Yulia Gnainsky, working in collaboration with Drs. Amichai Barash and Irit Granot of the Kaplan Medical Center, had been investigating a protein they suspected plays a role in the implantation of a fertilized egg in the uterus - a crucial and sometimes failure-prone process. The team took biopsies at several stages in the menstrual cycles of 12 women with long histories of fertility problems and unsuccessful IVF treatments to see if levels of this protein changed over the course of the cycle.
Indeed, the team’s research went according to plan and they found evidence pointing to the protein’s role. The surprise came soon after: Of the 12 women participating in the study, 11 became pregnant during the next round of IVF. The idea of biopsy incisions, basically small wounds, leading to such a positive outcome was counterintuitive, and Dekel realized something interesting was happening. She and her team repeated the biopsies, this time on a group of 45 volunteers, and compared the results to a control group of 89 women who did not undergo biopsy. The results were clear: The procedure doubled a woman’s chances of becoming pregnant.
Plasminogen activator inhibitor type 2 may play role in infection and dry eye
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Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor Type 2 (PAI-2), a protein found in various cell types including the skin, has been discovered in the tissue covering the eye and may have future clinical implications in various pathologies of the ocular surface such as eye infection or dry eye, according to researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University.
The researchers, led by Mina Massaro-Giordano, M.D., of the University of Pennsylvania’s Scheie Eye Institute, and Marcella Macaluso, Ph.D., of the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research at Temple University, published their study,
“Cytoplasmic and nuclear interaction between Rb family proteins and PAI-2: a physiological crosstalk in human corneal and conjunctival epithelial cells,” in Cell Death and Differentiation (http://www.nature.com/cdd).
WHO confirms six bird flu cases in Indonesia
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The World Health Organization confirmed six more human cases of bird flu infections in Indonesia on Wednesday, including five members of a family whose case has triggered fears of human-to-human transmission.
“There are six confirmations. One from Surabaya and five from Medan. One from Medan is still alive,” said Sari Setiogi, the WHO’s Indonesia spokeswoman.
An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu involving up to eight members of a family at Medan in North Sumatra province has worried health agencies around the world but a Health Ministry official said on Wednesday it was not a case of human-to-human transmission.
Reduced Cabin Pressure, Oxygen Finds No Activation of Blood Clotting System
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Researchers simulating conditions of reduced cabin pressure and reduced oxygen levels, such as may be encountered during an 8 hour airplane flight, found no increase in the activation of the blood clotting system among healthy individuals, according to a study in the May 17 issue of JAMA.
Venous thromboembolism (blood clots in vein) has been associated with long-haul air travel, but it has been unclear whether this is due to the effects of sitting for a long time, or whether there is a relationship with some other specific factor in the airplane environment, according to background information in the article. One hypothesis has been that hypoxia (reduced oxygen in the blood), associated with decreased cabin pressure that occurs at altitude, produces changes in blood that increases the risk for blood clots.
William D. Toff, M.D., of the University of Leicester, England, and colleagues conducted a study, from September 2003 to November 2005, to assess the effects of hypoxia in conditions similar to that which might be encountered during commercial air travel, on a variety of markers of activation of the hemostatic (blood clotting) system. The study included 73 healthy volunteers who spent 8 hours seated in a hypobaric (below normal pressure) chamber and were exposed to hypobaric hypoxia, similar to the conditions that would occur with reduced airplane cabin pressure at an altitude of about 8,000 feet. Blood was drawn before and after exposure to assess activation of factors associated with hemostasis (blood clotting). Similar measurements were taken of the volunteers who also spent 8 hours seated in a controlled environment equivalent to atmospheric conditions at ground level (normobaric exposure).
Health Leaders Discuss Importance of Calcium and Vitamin D, Affirm Value of Research
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The Society for Women’s Health Research convened experts on Capitol Hill yesterday to discuss recent results from a federal study to gauge the ability of calcium and vitamin D supplements to help prevent broken bones in women over 50. Initial news coverage said the study found no clear benefits, contradicting long held beliefs and confusing both patients and doctors. Health experts say the study results show benefits for some groups and guidelines for the nutrients remain unchanged.
“The Women’s Health Initiative’s calcium and vitamin D supplemental trial showed that women over the age of 60 had a 21 percent reduction in risk for hip fracture,” said Phyllis Greenberger, president and CEO of the Society. “Women who took a full dose of calcium, as directed by the study, had a 29 percent decrease in risk.”
Despite these findings, many headlines about this federally-funded research trial were negative and misleading.
Breast-feeding curbs obesity in at-risk kids
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Women who develop diabetes during pregnancy are liable to have large babies, which in turn can lead to obesity in childhood—but that chain of events may be interrupted if the mother breast-feeds, researchers report.
Diabetes that develops during pregnancy is termed gestational diabetes mellitus or GDM. “In a recent study of infants of mothers who had GDM, we demonstrated that parental obesity and excessive intrauterine growth resulting in neonatal overweight independently contribute to early childhood obesity,” Dr. Ute M. Schaefer-Graf and colleagues explain in the medical journal Diabetes Care.
For their current study, the researchers from Vivantes Medical Center and Charite University Medical Center in Berlin, Germany, examined the association between breast-feeding and being overweight in early childhood in the same group of 324 children.
Low fruit, vitamin C intake tied to asthma risk
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People with symptomatic asthma eat less fruit and consume less vitamin C and manganese than people who don’t have the disease, a new study shows.
The findings suggest that “diet may be a potentially modifiable risk factor for the development of asthma,” Dr. N.J. Wareham of the Medical Research Council in Cambridge, UK and colleagues write in the medical journal Thorax.
Several antioxidant nutrients have been linked to reduced asthma risk, Wareham and his team note, but it is not clear whether each of these nutrients plays a role in reducing risk or if they instead represent an overall healthier lifestyle.
Bird flu not spread on the wings of wild birds
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According to a Dutch environmental organisation, the on-going fear that flocks of wild birds will spread the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu through Africa and Europe may be ill founded.
Wetlands International say laying the blame on the wild bird population is possibly an impulsive and dangerous conclusion.
H5N1 has been spreading steadily from Asia to Africa and Europe since 2003 and at least 113 people have died from the strain, which led to the slaughter of more than 200 million animals to prevent what health officials had warned could be a pandemic.
Fifty more deaths in Angola from cholera
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO) another 50 people have died from cholera in Angola in the last week.
To date this latest outbreak has killed 1,156 people in the country since mid-February and the epidemic is showing no signs of abating and is in fact still spreading.
The WHO says Angola has reported 30,612 cases of cholera since February and half have been in the province of Luanda.
Labor can be longer for obese pregnant women
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Looking for yet another reason to stay svelte? Labor can be longer for obese pregnant women, a new Saint Louis University study finds.
The research, presented at the annual meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in May, finds that it takes obese pregnant women who are given medication to induce labor longer to deliver their babies than women of normal body weight.
The obese women also needed more medication - a dinoprostone vaginal insert - to activate labor, and it took longer for the medicine to start working. The obese women also are more likely to have a cesarean deliver than a vaginal delivery.
Elderly with breast cancer may be undertreated
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Women in their 80s with breast cancer tend to receive less intensive treatment compared with their younger counterparts, Israeli researchers report.
“According to our data, most women diagnosed with breast cancer at or after the age of 80, lived more than 6 years after diagnosis,” senior author Dr. Haim Gutman told Reuters Health. “A majority received less than the standard local treatment.”
Less than standard treatment was associated with somewhat increased risk of recurrence, although this “did not translate into statistically significant survival disadvantage,” he added.
Work, motherhood a healthy combo for women: study
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Juggling a career along with being a wife or partner and parent may help to keep women healthy, scientists said on Monday.
After analyzing data from a study that tracked the health of Britons born in 1946, they found that women who had multiple roles were less likely than homemakers, single mothers or childless females to report poor health or to be obese in middle age.
“Women who occupied multiple roles over the long term reported relatively good health at age 54,” said Dr Anne McMunn, of University College London.
Exercise, Diet May Protect Against Colorectal Cancer
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Voluntary exercise and a restricted diet reduced the number and size of pre-cancerous polyps in the intestines of male mice and improved survival, according to a study by a University of Wisconsin-Madison research published May 13 in the journal Carcinogenesis.
The study is the first to suggest that a “negative energy balance” - produced by increasing the mice’s energy output by use of a running wheel, while maintaining a restricted calorie intake - appeared to be the important factor in inhibiting the growth of polyps, which are the forerunners of colorectal tumors, says lead author Lisa H. Colbert, assistant professor in the UW-Madison department of kinesiology.
For the study, Colbert and her co-authors used mice with a genetic mutation that predisposed them to develop intestinal polyps.
Sunscreen ads not targeting high-risk groups
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Magazines aimed at men and parents and families, as well as to fans of travel and outdoor recreation, rarely contain ads for sun protection products, a new study shows.
Researchers note that middle-aged and older men are the group least likely to use sunscreen, while they are at the greatest risk of dying from melanoma, the most deadly form of skin cancer.
Alan C. Geller of Boston University School of Medicine and colleagues reviewed six years’ worth of issues of 24 popular magazines for groups at high risk of skin cancer, including men, women, teens, parents, travelers and people who enjoy outdoor pastimes such as tennis, running, golf and bicycling.
Surgery helps if even breast cancer spread: report
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Surgery greatly increases a patient’s chances of surviving with breast cancer, even if the cancer has spread by the time a woman is diagnosed, Swiss researchers reported on Monday.
Although many women around the world are simply offered what is known as palliative care, to help them live a little longer and make them comfortable while they wait to die, surgery could help them live much longer, the researchers found.
“Based on these findings, we believe that it is time to take a hard look at the current standard of care for breast cancer patients initially diagnosed with metastatic disease,” said Dr. Elisabetta Rapiti of the Geneva Cancer Registry at the University of Geneva, who led the study.
