Discover the Science of Health
In today’s hectic, fast-paced world, all too often we hear people say they haven’t gotten enough rest and plan to “catch up” on sleep over the weekend. However, new research suggests chronic sleep loss may be more serious than previously thought and may even lead to loss of brain cells [1].
The non-profit One Mind recently announced a partnership with the Intellectual Property & Science business of Thomson Reuters to further the understanding of traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and the central nervous system (CNS) [1]. The relationship will enable researchers to collaborate and share research results on a single web platform.
Could drug addiction treatment of the future be as simple as an on/off switch in the brain? A study in rats has found that stimulating a key part of the brain reduces compulsive cocaine-seeking and suggests the possibility of changing addictive behavior generally [1]. The study, published in the journal Nature, was conducted by scientists at the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the University of California, San Francisco.
A new report by the U.K. Health Protection Agency’s independent Advisory Group on Non-ionising Radiation (AGNIR) has concluded that there is no convincing evidence that mobile phone technologies cause adverse effects on human health. The report updates AGNIR’s previous review in 2003 that considers the scientific evidence on exposure to radiofrequency (RF) electromagnetic fields, which are produced by mobile phone technologies and other wireless devices, such as Wi-Fi, as well as television and radio transmitters.
Endometrial stem cells injected into the brains of mice with a laboratory-induced form of Parkinson’s disease appeared to take over the functioning of brain cells eradicated by the disease.
The finding raises the possibility that women with Parkinson’s disease could serve as their own stem cell donors. Similarly, because endometrial stem cells are readily available and easy to collect, banks of endometrial stem cells could be stored for men and women with Parkinson’s disease.
“These early results are encouraging,” said Alan E. Guttmacher, M.D., acting director of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the NIH Institute that funded the study. “Endometrial stem cells are widely available, easy to access and appear to take on the characteristics of nervous system tissue readily.”
Parkinson’s disease results from a loss of brain cells that produce the chemical messenger dopamine, which aids the transmission of brain signals that coordinate movement.
This is the first time that researchers have successfully transplanted stem cells derived from the endometrium, or the lining of the uterus, into another kind of tissue (the brain) and shown that these cells can develop into cells with the properties of that tissue.
