Pancreas News and Research

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The pancreas is a gland organ in the digestive and endocrine system of vertebrates. It is both an endocrine gland producing several important hormones, including insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin, as well as an exocrine gland, secreting pancreatic juice containing digestive enzymes that pass to the small intestine. These enzymes help in the further breakdown of the carbohydrates, protein, and fat in the chyme.

Gut microbiome may promote pancreatic cancer by inducing immune suppression

Bacterial load was significantly higher in pancreatic tumor samples from patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma compared with pancreatic tissue from normal individuals, and in studies using mice, eliminating certain "bad" bacteria slowed the growth of pancreatic cancer, reversed immune suppression, and upregulated the immune checkpoint protein PD1.

22 Mar 2018

Mother’s pre-pregnancy waist size may be linked to child's autism risk

A new study finds children born to mothers who had a larger waist size before pregnancy may be more likely to have autism than those whose mothers had a smaller pre-pregnancy waist.

20 Mar 2018

The 5:2 diet could have beneficial impact on important risk markers for cardiovascular disease

Intermittent energy restriction diets such as the 5:2 diet clears fat from the blood quicker after eating meals compared with daily calorie restriction diets, reducing an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease, a new study in the British Journal of Nutrition reports.

19 Mar 2018

MIT engineers develop new technology that could improve drug evaluation

MIT engineers have developed new technology that could be used to evaluate new drugs and detect possible side effects before the drugs are tested in humans.

14 Mar 2018

UIC researchers examine how arsenic affects development of diabetes

A five-year, $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences will help researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago answer basic questions about the role of arsenic in the development of diabetes and examine the mechanisms by which selenoproteins - found in the human body in 25 different forms - counter the effects of arsenic.

9 Mar 2018

Modifying Oncolytic Adenoviruses to Target Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the less common but deadliest cancers. Modified oncolytic adenoviruses represent an alternative to chemotherapy and targeted therapies, which have a high mortality rate.

9 Mar 2018

New study identifies the body's 'glucostat'

It is the pancreatic islets that have the overall responsibility for maintaining normal blood glucose levels in our bodies, according to a new study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, USA.

6 Mar 2018

New technique provides pairs of genetically matched cells to study disease

Researchers led by Dr. Knut Woltjen report a new gene editing method that can modify a single DNA base in the human genome with absolute precision.

6 Mar 2018

Researchers develop method to make adult cardiomyocytes divide and repair damaged hearts

Some organisms have a remarkable capacity for regenerating tissue. If a fish or salamander suffers heart damage, for instance, their cells are able to divide and successfully repair the injured organ. Imagine if you could do the same.

2 Mar 2018

Waist to hip ratio predicts heart attack risks among women

According to a new study from the George Institute for Global Health, women who have larger waists compared to their hips are at a greater risk of heart attacks than men who have a similar shape. A larger waist compared to hips is typically called the “apple shape”. The study appeared in the latest issue of the Journal of the American Heart Association and was sourced by data and other aids by UK Biobank.

1 Mar 2018

Unique progenitor cells in the pancreas have potential to develop glucose-responsive beta cells

Scientists from the Diabetes Research Institute at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine have confirmed the existence of progenitor cells within the human pancreas that can be stimulated to develop into glucose-responsive beta cells.

28 Feb 2018

Pancreatic progenitor cells could be used to treat diabetes, suggests study

Researchers have confirmed the existence of progenitor cells in the pancreas that can be stimulated to turn into glucose-responsive beta cells.

28 Feb 2018

Dual thermal ablation can kill pancreatic cancer cells, research shows

A heating and freezing process known as dual thermal ablation can kill pancreatic cancer cells, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University at New York.

27 Feb 2018

Researchers discover five new genetic changes that may increase pancreatic cancer risk

In what is believed to be the largest pancreatic cancer genome-wide association study to date, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute, and collaborators from over 80 other institutions worldwide discovered changes to five new regions in the human genome that may increase the risk of pancreatic cancer.

21 Feb 2018