Capillaries News and Research

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Discovery points the way to potential new strategies to treat blood disorders

Like a line of falling dominos, a cascade of molecular events in the bone marrow produces high levels of inflammation that disrupt normal blood formation and lead to potentially deadly disorders including leukemia, an Indiana University-led research team has reported.

4 Jul 2014

Researchers make giant leap towards goal of 'bio-printing' transplantable tissues, organs

Researchers have made a giant leap towards the goal of 'bio-printing' transplantable tissues and organs for people affected by major diseases and trauma injuries, a new study reports.

1 Jul 2014

Investigators isolate protein that is responsible for fungus' ability to cross blood-brain barrier

In a remarkable series of experiments on a fungus that causes cryptococcal meningitis, a deadly infection of the membranes that cover the spinal cord and brain, investigators at UC Davis have isolated a protein that appears to be responsible for the fungus' ability to cross from the bloodstream into the brain.

13 Jun 2014

New insight into how malaria parasites perturb flow may lead to novel treatments

All the billions of flat, biconcave disks in our body known as red blood cells (or erythrocytes) make three basic, tumbling-treadmill-type motions when they wend their way through the body's bloodstream ferrying oxygen from our lungs to our brains and other tissues. That is, unless they are infected with malaria parasites, in which case their motions are completely different.

11 Jun 2014

New technology can non-invasively image human lymphatic system

The human lymphatic system is an important but poorly understood circulatory system consisting of tiny vessels spread throughout the body.

4 Jun 2014

3D capillary device can increase production of high-quality liposomes

When the English author Sir Francis Bacon wrote "The world's a bubble" in 1629, it's a safe bet he wasn't thinking about microfluidics.

22 May 2014

Researcher receives $1.5M grant from NIH to find clues into causes of Alzheimer's

Alzheimer's is a progressive brain disease that affects older adults, slowly destroys their memories and may cause dementia. According to estimates from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the disease may affect as many as 5.1 million Americans.

22 May 2014

Recycling patients' red blood cells during heart surgery better than banked blood transfusion

Patients whose own red blood cells are recycled and given back to them during heart surgery have healthier blood cells better able to carry oxygen where it is most needed compared to those who get transfusions of blood stored in a blood bank, according to results of a small study at Johns Hopkins.

9 May 2014

Discovery could have far-reaching implications for diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy

Indiana University researchers have detected new early-warning signs of the potential loss of sight associated with diabetes. This discovery could have far-reaching implications for the diagnosis and treatment of diabetic retinopathy, potentially impacting the care of over 25 million Americans.

17 Apr 2014

Blood-brain barrier following stoke prevents harmful substances entering brain

Following ischemic stroke, the integrity of the blood-brain barrier (BBB), which prevents harmful substances such as inflammatory molecules from entering the brain, can be impaired in cerebral areas distant from initial ischemic insult.

27 Mar 2014

Microvascular coronary dysfunction in women may be triggered by emotional stress, say researchers

Researchers at the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute have found that emotional stressors - such as those provoking anger - may cause changes in the nervous system that controls heart rate and trigger a type of coronary artery dysfunction that occurs more frequently in women than men.

14 Mar 2014

Research provides insight into biologic mechanisms that individual cancer cells use to metastasize to brain

New research from Memorial Sloan Kettering provides fresh insight into the biologic mechanisms that individual cancer cells use to metastasize to the brain.

4 Mar 2014

New system delivers anti-inflammatory drugs to immune cells gone out of control

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago have developed a system for precisely delivering anti-inflammatory drugs to immune cells gone out of control, while sparing their well-behaved counterparts. Their findings were published online Feb. 23 in Nature Nanotechnology.

24 Feb 2014

Researchers produce novel microparticles

A team of researchers of Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and the University of Michigan/USA has produced novel microparticles, whose surface consists of three chemically different segments.

24 Feb 2014

Researchers develop new method to obtain three chemically different patches on same microparticle

Micromachines, nanorobots, multifunctional drug transporters, and matrices for tissue growth – these and many other applications would benefit from three-dimensional microstructures that present different (bio)chemical ligands that offer control over directionality. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, a team of German and American researchers has now reported the production of microparticles whose surface consists of three separate areas (“patches”) that can be decorated with three different (bio)molecules.

21 Feb 2014

Pre-capillary pulmonary hypertension common in severe heart failure

Pulmonary hypertension is common in patients with heart failure and is likely to include a pre-capillary component, research suggests.

6 Feb 2014

Researchers discover genetic mutations that cause deadly lung disease

A team of researchers, led by physicians and scientists at Intermountain Medical Center and ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City, has made a medical breakthrough by discovering genetic mutations that cause a rare and deadly lung disease.

4 Feb 2014

Researchers engineer skin cells for first time containing blood and lymphatic capillaries

Researchers at the University Children's Hospital Zurich and the University of Zurich have engineered skin cells for the very first time containing blood and lymphatic capillaries. They succeeded in isolating all the necessary types of skin cells from human skin tissue and engineering a skin graft that is similar to full-thickness skin.

30 Jan 2014

High-protein diet increases chance of developing kidney stones, other renal diseases

High-protein diets, like the popular Dr. Dukan diet, increase the long-term risk of developing kidney disease and have a negative effect on renal urinary and morphological markers. What's more, they may promote serious pathologies like nephrolithiasis (calcium kidney stones) because they drastically reduce urinary citrate (an inhibitor of calcium salt crystallization) and urinary pH, and increase urinary calcium (to compensate for the metabolic acidity caused by excess protein).

22 Jan 2014

Study: High-protein diet increases chance of developing kidney stones and other renal diseases

An experiment by scientists at the University of Granada, Spain, shows a high-protein diet increases the chance of developing kidney stones and other renal diseases.