Metabolism News and Research

Latest Metabolism News and Research

Scientists examine how substances at low concentrations may impact human health

A public and scientific discussion is currently taking place focusing on the question whether substances at low concentrations may lead to health impairments in humans. For this reason, an increasing number of experimental studies to test such effects are currently conducted using different chemicals.

18 Mar 2015

Penn researchers find evidence of new culprit in colon cancer

Colon cancer is a heavily studied disease -- and for good reason. It is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths worldwide, and its numbers are on the rise, from 500,00 deaths in 1990 to 700,000 in 2010.

17 Mar 2015

Tel Aviv University study proposes new way to suppress glucose surges

Our modern epidemic of obesity has led to an alarming rise in the incidence of diabetes. More than 382 million people on the planet suffer from diabetes, predominantly type-2 diabetes. For these people, blood sugar surges -- glucose spikes after meals -- can be life threatening, leading to cardiovascular complications.

17 Mar 2015

Mechanistic subtypes of IPAH revealed

Researchers have provided evidence for distinct processes underlying vasodilator-responsive and nonresponsive idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

13 Mar 2015

Metabolic derangement may facilitate cell proliferation in PAH

An enzyme that facilitates modification of proteins via a glucose metabolism pathway may promote cell proliferation in the lung tissue of patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension, say researchers.

13 Mar 2015

Blunted cortisol response common in non-classic CAH

Nearly two-thirds of children with non-classic congenital adrenal hyperplasia have an inadequate cortisol response, report researchers.

13 Mar 2015

Nomogram aids management of boys with constitutional delay in growth and puberty

A puberty nomogram is better than the classical criteria for identifying boys with constitutional delay in growth and puberty, report researchers.

13 Mar 2015

No adulthood metabolic consequences of central precocious puberty

Researchers have found that girls with central precocious puberty have similar metabolic and general health to other women when they reach young to middle adulthood.

13 Mar 2015

Antibiotic nanoparticles can help treat lung infection, prevent drug resistance

Treating respiratory disease is often difficult because drugs have to cross biological barriers such as respiratory tissue and mucosa, and must therefore be given in large quantities in order for an effective amount to reach the target.

13 Mar 2015

Study describes the dual role of microRNA during hepatitis C infection

In the battle between a cell and a virus, either side may resort to subterfuge. Molecular messages, which control the cellular machinery both sides need, are vulnerable to interception or forgery.

13 Mar 2015

Brazil's first open-access research facility to be established at UNICAMP

Open-access research into drug discovery has arrived in South America, with a ground-breaking collaboration between leading scientists in North America, Europe and Brazil to provide completely free and open research results to the world.

12 Mar 2015

Researchers gain new insights into molecular mechanisms affected by weight gain

Until now there have been few molecular epidemiological studies regarding the effects of weight changes on metabolism in the general population. In a recent study conducted and funded within the framework of the Competence Network Obesity, researchers at the Institute of Epidemiology II at Helmholtz Zentrum München evaluated molecular data of the KORA study.

12 Mar 2015

CHOP researchers find link between infancy BMI and childhood obesity

Body mass index (BMI) during infancy may help to predict if a child will be obese by age four. In a study focused on the infant BMI-childhood obesity relationship in a cohort with a majority of African-American children, researchers from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia say that a better understanding of infant growth patterns may lead to more effective early efforts at obesity prevention.

12 Mar 2015

Glucocorticoid therapies promote functional recovery of blood-brain barrier after blast injury

Barclay Morrison III, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, has led the first study to determine underlying biological mechanisms that promote functional recovery of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) after blast injury. The research demonstrates that treatment with the glucocorticoid, dexamethasone, after primary blast injury promotes rapid recovery of an in vitro model of the BBB, a highly restrictive semi-permeable barrier whose primary function is to maintain the brain's microenvironment and protect it from potentially toxic substances.

12 Mar 2015

Type 2 diabetes less common in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes among 25,000 patients with familial hypercholesterolemia (a genetic disorder characterized by high low-density lipoprotein [LDL] cholesterol levels) was significantly lower than among unaffected relatives, with the prevalence varying by the type of gene mutation, according to a study in the March 10 issue of JAMA.

11 Mar 2015

High vitamin D levels in blood connected to increased risk of death

The level of vitamin D in our blood should neither be too high nor to low. Scientists from the University of Copenhagen are the first in the world to show that there is a connection between high levels of vitamin D and cardiovascular deaths.

11 Mar 2015

New drug shows promise in driving insulin-producing beta cells to multiply

In a screen of more than 100,000 potential drugs, only one, harmine, drove human insulin-producing beta cells to multiply, according to a study led by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, funded by JDRF and the National Institutes of Health, and published online today in Nature Medicine.

10 Mar 2015