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Diabetic Retinopathy Stopped By Natural Compound
Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found a way to use a natural compound to stop one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States. The research appears online this month in the journal Diabetes, a publication of the American Diabetes Association.
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The Lives Of Pancreatic Cancer Patients Prolonged By New Drug Candidate
Every year, 42,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Few live very long, and less than 5% are still alive five years after diagnosis.
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Black Women More Likely To Have Vitamin D Deficiency, Bacterial Vaginosis, Study Finds
Black women are nearly three times as likely as white women to have a vitamin D deficiency, which is linked with an increased risk of the vaginal infection bacterial vaginosis, according to a study published in the June issue of the Journal of Nutrition, the New York Times reports. Black women likely have lower levels of vitamin D because the higher amount of pigment in their skin prevents the body from absorbing the vitamin.For the study, researchers led by Lisa Bodnar, an assistant professor of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, examined 209 white pregnant women and 260 black pregnant women at a Pittsburgh clinic. More than half of the women had low levels of vitamin D, the study found. Women whose vitamin D levels were 50 nanomoles or less had a 26% increased risk of BV, while women whose vitamin levels were less than 20 nanomoles had a 65% increased risk of the infection. About 52% of black women had the infection, compared with 27% of white women, the study found (Bakalar, New York Times, 5/26). The study found that 93% of women with BV had low vitamin D levels and that BV prevalence decreased as vitamin levels increased.In addition, although black women were more likely to have BV, white women who had low levels of vitamin D were as likely to have the infection as black women. Poor diets and obesity also contributed to a vitamin deficiency. Bodnar noted that black women are less likely than white women to meet dietary recommendations for vitamin D. Bodnar recommended that women discuss their level of vitamin D with their physicians and that pregnant women take a prenatal vitamin, which typically includes vitamin D.According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Bodnar"s research team has received NIH funding to conduct a study of whether vitamin D deficiency in women increases the risk of poor birth outcomes and whether high infant mortality among blacks can be attributed to factors such as obesity (Templeton, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 5/23).
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New Support For A Controversial Mechanism Underlying An Irregular Heart Beat

The most common form of human heart beat irregularity (atrial fibrillation) can be fatal if left untreated. It has been suggested that it is caused, in part, by calcium leaking from a cellular store in heart cells, potentially through the RyR2 channel, although this mechanism remains controversial. However, a team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and Dresden University of Technology, Germany, has provided support for this hypothesis by showing that the protein CaMKII can enhance RyR2-mediated calcium leak, promoting atrial fibrillation in mice. The team, led by Xander Wehrens and Dobromir Dobrev, studied mice engineered to express a mutant form of RyR2 associated with calcium leak. Although these mice did not spontaneously develop atrial fibrillation, they were more likely to develop atrial fibrillation than normal mice if their heart rate was forced up. This was related to the functional interaction of CaMKII with RyR2, and blocking CaMKII function in these mice prevented them from developing atrial fibrillation when their heart rate was forced up. As a functional link between CaMKII and RyR2 was observed in heart biopsies from patients with chronic atrial fibrillation, the authors suggest that enhanced CaMKII function might increase calcium leakage via RyR2 and initiate clinical atrial fibrillation. TITLE: Calmodulin kinase II - mediated sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ leak promotes atrial fibrillation in mice AUTHORS: Xander H.T. Wehrens Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas, USA. Dobromir Dobrev Dresden University of Technology, Dresden, Germany. View the PDF of this article at: https://www.the-jci.org/article.php?id=37059 Karen Honey Journal of Clinical Investigation JCI online early table of contents: June 15, 2009


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