Actin News and Research

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How a red blood cell loses its nucleus

Unlike the rest of the cells in your body, your red blood cells lack nuclei.

17 Feb 2008

How red blood cells nuke their nuclei

Unlike the rest of the cells in your body, your red blood cells lack nuclei.

12 Feb 2008

Researchers find new way to block destructive rush of immune cells

Researchers have found a way to selectively block the ability of white blood cells to "crawl" toward the sites of injury and infection when such mobility drives disease, according to a study published today in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

15 Jan 2008

High blood pressure gene found

Scientists have identified the gene that sets off a sequence of events in the blood vessels of otherwise healthy adults that can lead to high blood pressure.

11 Jan 2008

Insights into cell movement likely to aid immune study, cancer research

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have used yeast cells to better understand a collection of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement.

9 Jan 2008

New understanding of actin networks

Dynamic networks of growing actin filaments are critical for many cellular processes, including cell migration, intracellular transport, and the recovery of proteins from the cell surface.

4 Jan 2008

How molecular muscles help cells divide

Time-lapse videos and computer simulations provide the first concrete molecular explanation of how a cell flexes tiny muscle-like structures to pinch itself into two daughter cells at the end of each cell division, according to a report in Science Express.

17 Dec 2007

Discovery of proteins key to normal brain function

MIT researchers have identified a family of proteins key to the formation of the communication networks critical for normal brain function.

21 Nov 2007

Life-threatening gene defect related to thoracic aortic disease discovered

A research team led by scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston has identified a defective gene that affects vascular smooth-muscle cells in people who suffer from hereditary thoracic aortic disease, which can kill victims with little warning in the prime of their lives.

13 Nov 2007

Case Western Reserve researchers breed a "Lance Armstrong" mouse

Case Western Reserve University researchers have bred a line of "mighty mice" (PEPCK-Cmus mice) that have the capability of running five to six kilometers at a speed of 20 meters per minute on a treadmill for up to six hours before stopping.

2 Nov 2007

Epilepsy-induced brain cell damage blocked in lab experiments

For some epilepsy patients, the side effects of epilepsy can be as troubling as the seizures.

29 Oct 2007

A fresh perspective to the study of cell activity

In process that is shrouded in mystery, rod-shaped bacteria reproduce by splitting themselves in two. By applying advanced mathematics to laboratory data, a team led by Johns Hopkins researchers has solved a small but important part of this reproductive puzzle.

12 Oct 2007

New bioengineered antimicrobials help cystic fibrosis patients breathe easier

By better understanding how antimicrobials bind and thereby get inactivated in the mucus of air passages, researchers at the University of Illinois may have found a way to help cystic fibrosis patients fight off deadly infections.

25 Sep 2007

N-cofilin molecule protects from neuronal disorders

Many neuronal disorders, including epilepsy, schizophrenia and lissencephaly – a form of mental retardation - result from abnormal migration of nerve cells during the development of the brain.

17 Sep 2007

How immune cells catch pathogens

To protect us from disease our immune system employs macrophages, cells that roam our body in search of disease-causing bacteria.

12 Jul 2007

How immune cells catch pathogens

To protect us from disease our immune system employs macrophages, cells that roam our body in search of disease-causing bacteria. With the help of long tentacle-like protrusions, macrophages can catch suspicious particles, pull them towards their cell bodies, internalise and destroy them.

11 Jul 2007

Engineered blood vessels work like native tissue

Blood vessels that have been tissue-engineered from bone marrow adult stem cells may in the future serve as a patient's own source of new blood vessels following a coronary bypass or other procedures that require vessel replacement, according to new research from the University at Buffalo Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering.

9 Jul 2007

Novel mutation associated with muscle identified

The study demonstrates that muscle weakness experienced by persons with a regulatory protein tropomyosin mutation is directly related to a mechanism by which the mutant tropomyosin modulates contractile speed and force-generation capacity.

17 Jun 2007

Scientists have captured on video the intracellular version of a postal delivery service

Reporting in the journal Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications (BBRC), bioengineering researchers at UC San Diego published videos of a key message-carrying protein called paxillin moving abruptly from hubs of communication and transportation activity on the cell surface toward the nucleus.

3 Jun 2007