One way regular brushing may help keep gums firm and pink is, paradoxically, by tearing open cells, researchers have found. Bristles wielded with even gentle force tear holes in the epithelial cells that line the gums and tongue, causing a momentary rupture, researchers found.
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Scientists have discovered an important mechanism for controlling the behavior of adult stem cells. Research with the flatworm, planaria, found a novel role for the proteins involved in cell-to-cell communication. This work has the potential to help scientists understand the nature of the messages that control stem cell regulation — such as the message that maintain and tells a stem cell to specialize and to become part of an organ (e.g., liver or skin).
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Depressed people with a SNP in the GRIK4 gene were more likely to respond to the antidepressant medication citalopram (Celexa) than were people without the SNP. The results are from a follow-up of the NIMH-funded STAR*D clinical trial.
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The first report to identify the biological markers of narcolepsy using gene expression in white blood cells finds that the MX2 gene, which is relevant to the immune system, is significantly less expressed in narcoleptics compared with normal subjects. This underlies the abnormalities in the blood cells of persons suffering from narcolepsy.
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Disorders of arousal (i.e., sleepwalking, confusional arousals and sleep terrors) have sometimes been associated with violent behaviors against other individuals. A preliminary review of possible triggers for violence during disorders of arousal finds that violent behavior most frequently appears to follow direct provocation by, or close proximity to, another individual.
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Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and whose sleep efficiency is poor, experience significant improvement on some measures of the Continuous Performance Test if they are treated with methylphenidate.
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Persons with narcolepsy with cataplexy have low levels of cerebrospinal fluid hypocretin-1, a protein thought to help regulate sleep and wakefulness. Narcolepsy is a sleep disorder that causes people to fall asleep uncontrollably during the day. It also includes features of dreaming that occur while awake. Other common symptoms include sleep paralysis, hallucinations and cataplexy.
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People who work rotating shifts have significantly lower levels of serotonin, a hormone and neurotransmitter in the central nervous system believed to play an important role in the regulation of sleep.
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Radiofrequency ablation, a relatively new, minimally invasive treatment, was 100 percent successful in eradicating small malignant kidney tumors in a study of more than 100 patients, report researchers. Of 95 tumors that were smaller than 3.7 cm, all were completely eradicated by a single treatment, along with 14 of the larger tumors. Total success rate for all tumors was 93 percent.
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Mortality rates from pulmonary fibrosis have increased significantly in recent years, and are predicted to continue to rise, according to researchers. Between 1992 and 2003, the age-adjusted mortality rate from PF — an often fatal disease which involves scarring of the lung — rose by nearly 28.4 percent in men, and 41.3 percent in women. Over the same time period, an increasing percentage of patients with PF died of the disease itself rather than of coexisting conditions.
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