Hormone News and Research

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A hormone is a chemical released by one or more cells that affects cells in other parts of the organism. Only a small amount of hormone is required to alter cell metabolism. It is essentially a chemical messenger that transports a signal from one cell to another.

RNA interference therapy heals growth deficiency disorder in a live animal

A team of Vanderbilt researchers have demonstrated for the first time that a new type of gene therapy, called RNA interference, can heal a genetic disorder in a live animal.

20 Dec 2007

New drug that cuts risk of cardiovascular disease shows promise

The first clinical trial of a new kind of drug to cut the risk of cardiovascular disease has been found safe and effective at dropping levels of "bad" low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by as much as 40 percent.

18 Dec 2007

Oral diabetes medication - new guidelines

A pair of plain-language guides that outline the latest scientific evidence on the effectiveness and safety of oral medications for adults with type 2 diabetes are now available from HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

18 Dec 2007

Effectiveness and risks of six bisphosphonates for osteoporosis

Many medications reduce the risk of bone fractures in people with osteoporosis, but the most commonly used drugs - bisphosphonates - have not been proven more effective than alternatives, according to a new report funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

18 Dec 2007

How might lack of light cause depression?

People troubled by depression usually experience their dark moods in an on-again, off-again fashion.

18 Dec 2007

Caution on use of Vasopressin in septic shock

Vasopressin should be used with great caution for the treatment of hypotension in septic shock, according to results from an international research team published in the online open access journal Critical Care.

14 Dec 2007

High-dose chemo and stem cell transplant shows little or no survival benefit for breast cancer

High-dose chemotherapy and autologous stem cell transplantation, the controversial, arduous, yet once-popular combination treatment that fell out of favor as a therapy for breast cancer, has proven not to be beneficial as an adjuvant therapy for women with node-positive disease, according to an expansive analysis conducted by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

14 Dec 2007

Blind humans lacking rods and cones retain normal responses to non-visual effects of light

In addition to allowing us to see, the mammalian eye also detects light for a number of "non-visual" phenomena.

14 Dec 2007

Predicting growth hormone treatment success

Growth hormone treatments work better on some children than on others, but judging which candidates will gain those vital inches in height is no simple task.

13 Dec 2007

Likelihood of falling pregnant steadily decreases the fatter a woman is

A new study of obesity and the probability of pregnancy has shown that a woman's chances of a spontaneous pregnancy steadily decrease the fatter she is.

13 Dec 2007

Relationship of female sex hormones to mood states and disorders merits better research

Countless movies and TV shows make light of women's so-called “moodiness”, often jokingly attributing it to their menstrual cycle or, conversely, to menopause.

13 Dec 2007

Crimean Congo hemorrhagic fever virus strips away immune system's defensive measures

When the alert goes out that a virus has invaded the body, cells that have yet to be attacked prepare by "armoring" themselves for combat, attaching specific antiviral molecules to many of their own proteins to help resist the invader.

13 Dec 2007

Velcade, lenalidomide and dexamethasone combo show promise for multiple myeloma

A new combination of bortezomib (Velcade) and two other drugs is showing a very high response rate in patients newly diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a team headed by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigators reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

13 Dec 2007