Platelets News and Research

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Bleeding gums increase risk of heart disease

Bad teeth, bleeding gums and poor dental hygiene can cause heart disease, Professor Howard Jenkinson from the University of Bristol will tell members of the Society for General Microbiology in Trinity College, Dublin today [Thursday 11 September].

10 Sep 2008

Researchers devise means to create blood by discovering earliest form of human blood stem cells

Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered the earliest form of human blood stem cells and deciphered the mechanism by which these embryonic stem cells replicate and grow. They also found a surprising biological marker that pinpoints these stem cells, which serve as the progenitors for red blood cells and lymphocytes.

28 Aug 2008

FDA grants IND for Davanat to treat breast cancer patient

Pro-Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted an Investigational New Drug (IND) application for use of Davanat in combination with 5-FU to treat a breast cancer patient at the Brown Cancer Center in Louisville, Kentucky. Davanat also is being administered in Phase II clinical trials for first-line treatment of colorectal and biliary cancer patients.

28 Aug 2008

FDA approves Nplate (romiplostim), first bone marrow stimulator for chronic immune thrombocytopenic purpura

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved Nplate (romiplostim), the first product that directly stimulates the bone marrow to produce needed platelets in patients with a rare blood disorder that can lead to serious bleeding.

24 Aug 2008

Scientists discover platelets play an important early role in promoting cerebral malaria

Platelets - those tiny, unassuming cells that cause blood to clot and scabs to form when you cut yourself - play an important early role in promoting cerebral malaria, an often lethal complication that occurs mostly in children.

18 Aug 2008

Aspirin, acid-blocker a-day keeps GI bleeding at bay

For patients with clogged heart arteries who take long-term, low-dose aspirin to prevent a cardiac event, adding a stomach acid-blocking drug to their daily routine has been shown to reduce their risk for upper gastrointestinal bleeding - an infrequent, but serious side-effect of regular aspirin use.

11 Aug 2008

Findings may aid in bone marrow transplants, blood diseases

New research sheds light on the biological events by which stem cells in the bone marrow develop into the broad variety of cells that circulate in the blood. The findings may help improve the success of bone marrow transplants and develop better treatments for life-threatening blood diseases.

5 Aug 2008

Heat waves when in hospital

Deaths due to high temperatures occur so quickly that patients do not have time to be admitted to hospital. This is why prevention campaigns are necessary to try and reduce the negative effects of the heat on health. This is pointed out in new research undertaken at the Hospital Universitario Gregorio Maranon, Madrid.

10 Jul 2008

Farm-raised tilapia fish contains potentially dangerous fatty acid combination

"Farm-raised tilapia, one of the most highly consumed fish in America, has very low levels of beneficial omega-3 fatty acids and, perhaps worse, very high levels of omega-6 fatty acids, according to new research from Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

8 Jul 2008

Like father like son - history of heart attacks in the family

Scientists know that heredity plays an important role in causing heart attacks. However the exact genetic mechanisms that transmit the risk of heart attacks from generation to generation still elude them.

17 Jun 2008

Avoiding spleen removal for Cooley's anemia sufferers

Researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College may have discovered the precise role of a gene in one of the world's most common blood disorders, beta-thalassemia, commonly known as Cooley's anemia. Along with sickle-cell anemia, Cooley's anemia is the most commonly inherited disease in the world, affecting many people of Mediterranean descent, and 20 out of every 100,000 African-Americans. The World Health Organization estimates that between 50,000-100,000 children are born with the disease each year.

27 May 2008

Ashwell receptor plays key role in reducing coagulation abnormalities during infection and sepsis

In research that solves the longest-standing mystery in glycobiology - a field that studies complex sugar chains called glycans - researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that a molecule in the liver of all animals, called the Ashwell receptor, is critical in helping the body fight off the abnormal and lethal blood clotting caused by bacterial infection.

19 May 2008

Mending tendons without surgery

James McGillicuddy was not getting good news. Three years after arriving at Stanford as one of the nation's top high school football recruits, he'd been stuck on the sidelines the entire time by a torn tendon that, even with two surgeries, just wouldn't stay fixed. More surgery would not help, his doctors told him, but they did have one last option to offer him.

21 Apr 2008

Self-repairing technologies in polymer materials

Will the day come when cracks in buildings close up without external help and before they get to the stage where they cause damage to the component?

17 Apr 2008

New molecule could be key to anti-heart attack drug

When too many blood platelets stick together in the bloodstream, they form dangerous clots that can clog blood vessels and cause a heart attack. If a clot doesn't get dissolved or rapidly removed, it can cause permanent damage or even death.

17 Apr 2008

Better understanding of how T-cell leukemias and other disorders arise

Contrary to the currently accepted model of T-cell development, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have found that juvenile cells on their way to becoming mature immune cells can develop into either T cells or other blood-cell types versus only being committed to the T-cell path.

10 Apr 2008