Long-Term Benefits of Morphine Treatment in Infants Confirmed in Rodent Study

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 4 days (www.filterproof.com)

A recent study conducted by researchers at Georgia State University is the first of its kind to demonstrate that administration of preemptive morphine prior to a painful procedure in infancy blocks the long-term negative consequences of pain in adult rodents. These studies have serious implications for the way anesthetics and analgesics are administered to neonates prior to surgery.

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A natural reprogramming system

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 months 4 weeks (www.nature.com)

In fruit flies--and presumably other pupating insects--specialized cells revert to multipotency as the larva prepares to transform into an adult. We had thought that the differentiated larval cells simply died during this process, and many of them do, but it does seem that some can regain some pluripotency.

The way they figured this out is particularly vivid. By modifying the cells in the larvae's tracheae to glow green, researchers were able to track their destinations and daughter cells.

We already knew that some human cells were able to perform similar feats

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Mice Can Sense Oxygen Through Their Skin

siemens submitted, created time 7 months 4 days (www.medicinenet.com)

Mice can sense oxygen through their skin, says a new study that showed the skin plays a major role in sensing oxygen levels in the environment and in stimulating kidney production of the hormone erythropoietin (EPO) when oxygen levels decline.

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Starving before chemotherapy could save more lives

sumsung submitted, created time 7 months 3 weeks (www.newscientist.com)

Chemotherapy would have fewer side effects and save more lives if patients fasted for two days before receiving treatment, suggest tests in animals. Mice injected with cancerous cells and then given chemotherapy died after around 60 days. But animals that were starved for 48 hours prior to treatment typically lived 10-20 days longer, says Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in Davis, US. The longest-lived of the 16 mice that fasted did not die until around 14 weeks after being injected.

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First demonstration of new hair follicle generation in an animal model

athena submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.biologynews.net)

"Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that hair follicles in adult mice regenerate by re-awakening genes once active only in developing embryos. These findings provide unequivocal evidence for the first time that, like other animals such as newts and salamanders, mammals have the power to regenerate. These findings are published in the May 17 issue of Nature. "

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