health 40

Pores and skin TRM (seen in pink) 'sense' infections and 'alarm' host tissue to recruit effector cells (inexperienced) to the pores and skin the place they contribute to viral clearance. Regardless of upkeep of pores and skin TRM in septic hosts ( CLP ), tissue-wide recruitment of effector cells was significantly diminished leading to enhanced susceptibility to secondary pores and skin infections. Web site-specific administration of chemokines (CXCL9-10) restored homing indicators that had been diminished in septic hosts to allow recruitment of effector cells to the pores and skin. Thus, this method may show helpful to reinforce the septic affected person's T-cell-mediated immunity in the course of the interval of immunosupp...

"Numerous sweeteners exhibit undesirable off-tastes, limiting their use in food products and beverages," says lead author Maik Behrens of the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke. "Our findings in this study provide us with the tools and knowledge to find ways leading to superior sweetener blends." High-potency sweeteners are widely used to replace energy-rich, tooth-decay-inducing sugars in food items to meet the requirements of health-conscious consumers. But in addition to stimulating sweet taste receptors, sugar substitutes also activate bitter taste receptors (known as TAS2Rs) at high concentrations, resulting in an undesired off-taste. To overcome this problem, the food industry is constantly searching for novel sugar substitutes and frequently resorts to using blends combining non-caloric sweeteners in a single formulation. The earliest blend allowing higher sweetness levels with reduced bitter off-taste combined saccharin with cyclam...

For many students, college involves a lot of socializing at parties and at bars, and alcohol is a common factor in these social environments. Excessive alcohol use, in the form of binge drinking, is extremely common among college students, and one study has estimated that as many as one third of young North Americans and Europeans binge drink. So, what defines binge drinking? The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism describes a binge as drinking five or more drinks for men and four or more for women within a two-hour period, and for many college students, these limits wouldn't equate to a particularly heavy night. Previous research has linked binge drinking to a variety of negative consequences including neurocognitive deficits, poor academic performance, and risky sexual behavior. While numerous studies have shown that the brains of chronic alcoholics have altered brain activity, there is also evidence that bingeing can change adolescents' brains. Eduardo ...

In the first study of its kind looking at babies outside the United States, researchers from the University of Adelaide's Adelaide Medical School investigated 41 cases of SIDS deaths and discovered striking abnormalities in chemical serotonin within the brain. Serotonin, otherwise known as 5-HT, is a neurotransmitter found in different parts of the human body, including the central nervous system. Among its many roles, serotonin is involved in the regulation of sleep, and also control of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. This latest research, published in the  Journal of Neuropathology & Experimental Neurology , confirms and supports the concept that brainstem dysfunction, resulting in significantly altered serotonin expression, is associated with some SIDS deaths. SIDS is the sudden unexpected death of an infant under one year of age that cannot be explained after a thorough investigation, including an autopsy. It is the leading cause of death in infants betw...

Researchers from USC and the University of Manchester have found that another gene, TOMM40, complicates the picture. Although ApoE4 plays a greater role in some types of aging-related memory ability, TOMM40 may pose an even greater risk for other types. TOMM40 and APOE genes are neighbors, adjacent to each other on chromosome 19, and they are sometimes used as proxies for one another in genetic studies. At times, scientific research has focused chiefly on one APOE variant, ApoE4, as the No. 1 suspect behind Alzheimer's and dementia-related memory decline. The literature also considers the more common variant of APOE, ApoE3, neutral in risk for Alzheimer's disease. USC researchers believe their new findings raise a significant research question: Has TOMM40 been misunderstood as a sidekick to ApoE4 when it is really a mastermind, particularly when ApoE3 is present? "Typically, ApoE4 has been considered the strongest known genetic risk factor for cognitive decline, me...

It was just one more example of how hard it continues to be for women's sports to receive any attention at all, unless it is somehow filtered through a very dismissive male gaze. While mainstream broadcast coverage now treats the games women play a bit more seriously, much of that now mostly respectful coverage is still being relegated to the sideline, according to an ongoing, decades-long study by USC researchers that was published Sept. 12 in the journal  Gender & Society . The research team found that L.A.-based network affiliates devoted 3.2 percent of airtime to women's sports on news broadcasts, down from 5 percent from 1989, the first year of the study. ESPN's SportsCenter has been even worse, devoting 2 percent of airtime to women's sports, a proportion that has remained flat since the study began tracking the show in 1999. "When compared to the start of the study, women used to be framed in ways that were overtly sexist. Now the sexism is subtl...