Monthly Archives: June 2007

Analyses of a national sample of individuals with alcohol dependence (alcoholism) reveal five distinct subtypes of the disease, according to a new study by scientists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Researchers have discovered that a protein called ATM kinase, which plays a crucial role in repairing double-strand breaks in DNA, also helps prevent cells with this type of DNA damage from dividing, thereby blocking the passage of persistent DNA damage on to daughter cells. Persistent DNA damage can lead to the development of cancer. These results, from a study conducted in mice by scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and others appeared online June 28, 2007 in the journal Cell and will be published in the July 13, 2007 issue of the journal.
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Scientists have discovered a new type of mouse embryonic stem cell that is the closest counterpart yet to human embryonic stem (ES) cells, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today. The cells are expected to serve as an improved model for human ES cells in studies of regeneration, disease pathology and basic stem cell biology.
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When it comes to low back pain, physicians generally advise exhausting nonsurgical options before resorting to surgery. But a new study shows that for degenerative spondylolisthesis with spinal stenosis, surgery provides significantly better results than nonsurgical alternatives. The study, published in the May 31 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, is the second in a series reporting findings of the Spine Patients Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT), a five-year, multicenter study supported by the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), a part of the National Institutes of Health.
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Scientists from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and Integrative Bioinformatics Inc. have made an important discovery about the role of an enzyme called ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein (ATM) in the body’s ability to repair damaged DNA. NIAMS and NCI are part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today it will provide $4.8 million to establish and support a repository for its Knockout Mouse Project. This award is the final component of a more than $50 million trans-NIH initiative to increase the availability of genetically altered mice and related materials.
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A brief skill-building program on practices to reduce exposure to sexually transmitted disease (STD) and HIV improved the self-reported protective behaviors of inner-city black women for up to one year and actually decreased their risk of acquiring an STD, according to a study appearing in the June 2007 issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The women received the program from specially trained nurses either individually or in small group sessions at an inner-city women’s health clinic. The study was conducted as part of the “Sister to Sister: The Black Women’s Health Project,” funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research (NINR), a component of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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Girls who suffered childhood sexual abuse are more likely to develop alcoholism later in life if they possess a particular variant of a gene involved in the body’s response to stress, according to a new study led by researchers at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new finding could help explain why some individuals are more resilient to profound childhood trauma than others.
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Omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids protect against the development and progression of retinopathy, a deterioration of the retina, in mice. This is the major finding of a study that appears in the July 2007 issue of the journal Nature Medicine. The study was a collaborative effort by researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston, the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, the University of Goteborg in Sweden, and the National Eye Institute (NEI) and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
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A team of researchers has uncovered a set of genes that are turned on, or expressed, at high levels only in the blood vessels that feed tumors. These genes, and the proteins they encode, are potential targets for novel drugs that could selectively cut off a tumor�s blood supply. Continue reading →