Vertebral Column News and Research

RSS

Tiktaalik fossil reveals key step in evolution of walking

Before the evolution of legs from fins, the axial skeleton -; including the bones of the head, neck, back and ribs -; was already going through changes that would eventually help our ancestors support their bodies to walk on land.

5 Apr 2024

Study provides insight into potential mechanisms underlying diabetes-related disc tissue damage

Type 2 diabetes alters the behavior of discs in the vertebral column, making them stiffer, and also causes the discs to change shape earlier than normal.

13 Feb 2024

Deep learning models can improve low-field MRI images for better clinical diagnoses

Image-to-image translation model LoHiResGAN.

5 Dec 2023

The role of estrogen in osteoarthritis and lower back pain

Researchers review existing evidence on the association between estrogen, osteoarthritis, and lower back pain.

10 Aug 2023

Research illuminates the genetic basis of human skeletal proportions

Combining data from full-body x-ray images and associated genomic data from more than 30,000 UK Biobank participants, researchers have helped illuminate the genetic basis of human skeletal proportions.

20 Jul 2023

How does tobacco usage impact quality of life?

Researchers evaluated the impact of tobacco usage on the health-associated quality of life.

17 May 2023

UC research could lead to possible treatments for scoliosis in the future

How cells shape complex tissues and organs during embryo development, which makes us what we are, has many mysteries.

11 Jan 2023

Scientists mimic the natural development of mammal using stem cells

The tiny mouse embryo has a heart that beats. Its muscles, blood vessels, gut and nervous system are beginning to develop. But this embryo is unusual: It was made in a lab, out of mouse embryonic stem cells, and represents the most sophisticated in vitro (in a dish) model of a mammal ever so created.

29 Jun 2021

Scientists examine the molecular causes of rare hereditary disease

Scientists in EMBL Barcelona’s Ebisuya group, with collaborators from RIKEN, Kyoto University, and Meijo Hospital in Nagoya, Japan, have studied oscillating patterns of gene expression, coordinated across time and space within a tissue grown in vitro, to explore the molecular causes of a rare human hereditary disease known as spondylocostal dysostosis.

5 Apr 2020

New method for delivering NSCs to spinal cord injuries may boost repair efforts

Writing in the journal Stem Cells Translational Medicine, an international research team, led by physician-scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, describe a new method for delivering neural precursor cells (NSCs) to spinal cord injuries in rats, reducing the risk of further injury and boosting the propagation of potentially reparative cells.

29 Jan 2020

Brain changes occurred independent of evolutionary rearrangements in the braincase

The human brain is about three times the size of the brains of great apes. This has to do, among other things, with the evolution of novel brain structures that enabled complex behaviors such as language and tool production.

15 Oct 2019

New research provides better understanding of our early human ancestors

The fossil site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa, discovered by Lee Berger of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in August 2008, has been one of the most productive sites of the 21st century for fossils of early human ancestors or hominins.

18 Jan 2019

New research collaboration launches first evolutionary study to explore origins of fish that walk

A new research collaboration with support from the National Science Foundation, or NSF, begins an unprecedented study of walking cavefish to better understand the "fin-to-limb" transition that enabled the first vertebrates to walk on land more than 350 million years ago.

20 Dec 2018

Research offers clues to how random gene fluctuations may be tamed during earliest stages of life

Scientists exploring how to tame random gene fluctuations as the embryos that become our bodies start to form have identified a control switch in the vertebrate segmentation clock of developing zebrafish.

16 May 2018

No-carb diet for pregnant woman could harm fetus, study finds

A new study from researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has found that pregnant women and women wishing to get pregnant should avoid following diets that reduce or eradicate carbohydrates from their diet.

29 Jan 2018

Researchers provide new insights into vertebrae formation

Like a string of pearls, the spine is made of a series of similar vertebrae. A so-called segmentation clock creates this repetitive arrangement in developing embryos: Each time the clock ticks, a vertebra starts to form.

27 Sep 2017

Historical and modern perspectives in management of basilar invagination

Winner of the Vesalius Award Award, Abhidha Harshad Shah, MS, MD, presented her research, Management of Basilar Invagination: A Historical Perspective, during the 2016 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting.

5 May 2016

Forensic experts establish science-based standards to identify human remains using X-rays

Forensic researchers have for the first time established science-based standards for identifying human remains based on X-rays of an individual's spine, upper leg or the side of the skull.

23 Mar 2016

CHLA announces availability of the EOS Imaging System to improve pediatric care

Children's Hospital Los Angeles announces the availability of the EOS Imaging System, the first technology capable of providing head-to-toe images of patients in both 2D and 3D while using up to 90 percent less radiation than X-rays.

15 Dec 2015

New concussion program aims at treating football players with predisposition to CTE

Upledger Institute Clinic in conjunction with the Ricky Williams Foundation and the Dr. John E. Upledger Foundation announced earlier today, the start of their second concussion therapy research program aimed at treating current and former members of the NFL and the Canadian Football League.

26 Sep 2015