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New Role Discovered For Molecule Important In Development Of The Pancreas
For years researchers have been searching for a way to treat diabetics by reactivating their insulin-producing beta cells, to no avail. Now, they may be one step closer. A protein, whose role in pancreatic development has long been recognized, has been discovered to play an additional and previously unknown regulatory role in the development of cells in the immature endocrine system. These cells ultimately give rise to pancreatic islet cells, which include beta cells.
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Drop In Access To Abortion Would Reward Antiabortion-Rights Violence, Opinion Piece Says
After the murder last month of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, "there is a very real danger" that the availability of abortion later in pregnancy "will end in this country -- not after public deliberation, legislative debate and majority vote, but because antiabortion absolutists on the fringe have intimidated and blacklisted doctors and successfully threatened violence against them," Jim Buie, author of the blog The Buie Knife, writes in a Newsweek.com opinion piece. Buie writes that his parents in the early 1950s chose to institutionalize his three-year-old-brother, who was born with severe Down syndrome, after their attempts to care for him left them with "severe emotional distress" and unable "to meet the needs of their healthy children."Buie continues that he "cannot say that the option of a late-term abortion would have been the right one for my parents." However, "some of the arguments advanced by pro-life forces disturb me," he says, especially a "tendency to romanticize, sentimentalize and idealize life with a cute, forever-young Down-syndrome "angel child."" Buie adds, "It"s an argument I find off-putting, especially when it"s espoused by people who have never been through the wringer trying to care for a child whose disability level is on the most severe end of the scale." He continues, "At the same time, it is very disturbing that until recently, the majority of Down-syndrome fetuses were aborted without expectant mothers receiving proper information or support."Because of Tiller"s murder, it is "possible there won"t be any doctors in the country willing to perform" abortion later in pregnancy, "even if prenatal tests indicate severe retardation," according to Buie, who adds that this would mean that "domestic terrorism could win." He concludes, "It would mean that parents like my own would no longer have a choice, and would instead be forced to endure the same harsh realities that were present in the 1950s" (Buie, Newsweek.com, 6/17).
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Sleeplessness Rising In A Falling Economy
"Where care lodges, sleep will never lie," says Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet.
Oncology

Genetic Pathway Responsible For Link Between Body Clock Disturbance And Worsening Arthritis

The genes that regulate human circadian rhythm, or "the body clock", are significantly disturbed in individuals with arthritis, according to the results of a new study presented at EULAR 2009, the Annual Congress of the European League Against Rheumatism in Copenhagen, Denmark. Notably, a specific genetic pathway has been identified as responsible for interactions between the genes that regulate the body clock and those that may worsen symptoms of arthritis. In a sample of 200 rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients, sleep was determined to be significantly disturbed in over 61%, as determined by a Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) score of >5 (the PSQI global score was 8.55 ÷±4.69). These values were shown to correlate with several measures of arthritis disease activity, including levels of c-reactive protein, swollen joint count and DAS28*. A further element of the study looked into the expression patterns of certain genes in mice with arthritis. Here, researchers identified a novel biochemical pathway in which the circadian regulatory gene CRY was found to up-regulate expression of a gene which promotes the activation of TNF-alpha (tumour necrosis factor-alpha, a pro-inflammatory cytokine used by the body to boost the immune system) by two fold, when comparing mice with the CRY gene removed to those with a normal copy of the gene. Professor Shunichi Shiozawa of Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine and University Hospital, Japan, who led the research said: "Our study has shown that arthritis interferes with the genetics behind an individual"s circadian rhythm and, specifically, that certain body clock genes may play a part in the activation of TNF-alpha, a signaling molecule that has an important role in the inflammation commonly seen in a number of rheumatologic conditions. The identification of this curious pathway may help to explain the 24-hour symptom cycle seen by many patients who experience worsening of joint pain and stiffness in the mornings, and lead to further research into new approaches for improving daily quality of life." RA patients who participated in the study were attending the Kakogawa Konan Hospital and Kobe University Hospitals. Experimental arthritis was induced in mice with the CRY gene removed. Expression of the genes responsible for regulation of the human body clock were determined by immunohistochemistry and quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction. TNF-alpha levels were measured by ELISA, and transactivation of TNF-alpha gene was examined by reporter assay. * DAS28 (Disease Activity Score) is an index used by physicians to measure how active an individual"s RA is. It assesses number of tender and swollen joints (out of a total of 28), the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR, a blood marker of inflammation), and the patient"s "global assessment of global health". A higher score indicates more active disease. Abstract number: AB0084 Rory Berrie European League Against Rheumatism


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