Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Penn Researchers Discover Gene That Creates Second Skeleton
- Pituitary Hormone Implicated In Bone Loss After Menopause
- Research Provides Insight Into Ways To Manipulate Human Sweet Taste
- The Effects of My Poker All-Nighter
- Are prostitutes sinners?
- Joslin Diabetes Center-Led Study Reveals New Findings on How Insulin…
- Sweet ‘water taste’ paradoxically predicts sweet taste…

Penn Researchers Discover Gene That Creates Second Skeleton
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Apr 23, 2006
This is nothing less than a campaign for physical independence and personal freedom for these kids. If the knowledge helps us to see farther to help others, that will be great, but this work is for and about the children. "
One in Two Million
FOP is one of the rarest conditions known to medicine, found in only one in 2 million individuals, but, as Kaplan says, quoting from William Harvey who discovered the circulation of the blood, "Nature is nowhere accustomed more openly to display her secret mysteries than in cases where she shows traces of her workings apart from the beaten path. " Of an estimated 2500 total FOP patients worldwide, there are approximately 600 known patients, and the FOP research group at Penn knows nearly all of them. Says Kaplan, "They are our children, our family. "
Early in life, because of a possible molecular short-circuit in the wound repair system of the body, tendons, ligaments, and skeletal muscle begin an inexorable transformation into an armament of bone, imprisoning its childhood victims in a second skeleton. "FOP bone is perfectly normal in every way, except it should not be there," says Kaplan… ACVR1 is an important BMP signaling switch in cartilage cells of the growth plates of growing bones, especially in the hands and feet, as well as in the cells of skeletal muscle. In previous studies in chickens and zebrafish, other researchers have found that an artificially made "trigger happy" copy of the ACVR1 gene (similar, but not identical to the FOP gene mutation) makes muscle cells behave like bone cells, upregulating BMP4 expression; downregulating BMP antagonist expression (such as noggin); expanding cartilage elements in growing bone, eventually inducing extra bone growth; and stimulating joint fusion - clinical and molecular features nearly identical to those seen in individuals with FOP. In the definitive genetic linkage analysis described in the Nature Genetics paper, which located the FOP gene to a region on chromosome 2, the researchers used a subset of families in whom all affected individuals had unambiguous features of classic FOP, features that included typical congenital malformations of the great toes and a predictable pattern of extra-skeletal bone formation that mimics the embryonic patterns by which the normal skeleton forms. The researchers have found that every person with classic FOP has the identical mutation in the ACVR1 gene. Looking Forward
Computer modeling of the three-dimensional structure of the mutant ACVR1 protein suggests altered activation of this form of ACVR1. "Presumably, the FOP mutation causes a molecular short circuit or promiscuous activation of the receptor, but the detailed molecular physiology is still being deciphered," says Kaplan. "Such knowledge will be essential to develop treatments and an eventual cure for FOP.

Pituitary Hormone Implicated In Bone Loss After Menopause
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Apr 23, 2006
"For the last three decades, the idea has clearly been that estrogen loss is responsible for the changes experienced in postmenopausal women–including flushing, dryness, and bone loss," Zaidi said. "Although FSH levels rise sharply in parallel to estrogen decline, a direct effect of FSH on the skeleton had never before been explored. "
"We’ve now found that, irrespective of the nature or severity of estrogen deficiency, an intact pituitary and, more specifically, high FSH levels are prerequisites for bone loss in animals with reduced or absent ovarian function. "
Osteoporosis affects nearly 45 million women worldwide with fracture rates that far exceed the combined incidence of breast cancer, stroke, and heart attacks, the researchers said. The disease results from a disruption of the fine balance between bone formation and resorption. After menopause, resorption exceeds new bone formation, leading to a net bone loss that can be slowed by estrogen therapy through mechanisms that have remained somewhat murky, Zaidi said. However, emerging evidence has begun to cast some doubt on whether estrogen deficiency can fully explain bone loss after menopause, he added… Scientist had thought pituitary hormones acted primarily through their effects on other endocrine glands. "This should change the textbook picture of pituitary hormone physiology," he said. The researchers include Li Sun, Yuanzhen Peng of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY; Allison C. Sharrow of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA and the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA; Jameel Iqbal and Zhiyuan Zhang of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY; Dionysios J. Papachristou of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA and the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA; Samir Zaidi and Ling-Ling Zhu of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY; Beatrice B. Yaroslavskiy of the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA and the VA Medical Center in Pittsburgh, PA; Hang Zhou of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY; Alberta Zallone of the University of Bari in Bari, Italy; M. Ram Sairam of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal in Montreal, Canada; T.

Research Provides Insight Into Ways To Manipulate Human Sweet Taste
Science Daily - Science Daily (press release) - Apr 23, 2006
The researchers further report that taste perception switches back to sweetness when these high concentrations are rinsed from the mouth with water, resulting in the aftertaste experience known as sweet ‘water taste. ‘
The Nature article describes the phenomenon of sweet ‘water taste’ and then goes on to explain it at the level of the sweet taste receptor. "These findings will open doors for tweaking the sweet taste receptor and finding new sweeteners and inhibitors that can be used both by food industry and in medicine," states senior author Paul A… The researchers further report that taste perception switches back to sweetness when these high concentrations are rinsed from the mouth with water, resulting in the aftertaste experience known as sweet ‘water taste. ‘
The Nature article describes the phenomenon of sweet ‘water taste’ and then goes on to explain it at the level of the sweet taste receptor. "These findings will open doors for tweaking the sweet taste receptor and finding new sweeteners and inhibitors that can be used both by food industry and in medicine," states senior author Paul A. Breslin, PhD, a Monell geneticist. Lead author Veronica Galindo-Cuspinera, PhD, noted while working on a separate study that saccharin — commonly used at low concentrations as an artificial sweetener — loses its initially sweet taste when tasted at high concentrations. Galindo-Cuspinera subsequently observed that strong sweetness returned when the high concentrations of saccharin were rinsed from the mouth with water.

The Effects of My Poker All-Nighter
Casino City Times - Apr 23, 2006
There have been a number of studies on sleep deprivation and they all come to a similar conclusion: Lack of sleep equals bad things. Brain functions are altered when a person suffers from sleep deprivation. In a 2000 study published in Nature, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that regions of the brain that are most active while rested people do arithmetic problems were not nearly as active when sleep deprived subjects were asked to do the same problems. Another study, published in 2000 by Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reports that sleep deprivation can be as hazardous as consuming alcohol. Subjects in the study who drove after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than subjects who had a blood alcohol level of. Perhaps the most disturbing study was a 2003 University of Pittsburgh study, which found that older adults who lay awake for long periods during the night have a diminished quality of life and double their risk of death… Brain functions are altered when a person suffers from sleep deprivation. In a 2000 study published in Nature, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that regions of the brain that are most active while rested people do arithmetic problems were not nearly as active when sleep deprived subjects were asked to do the same problems. Another study, published in 2000 by Occupational and Environmental Medicine, reports that sleep deprivation can be as hazardous as consuming alcohol. Subjects in the study who drove after being awake for 17-19 hours performed worse than subjects who had a blood alcohol level of. Perhaps the most disturbing study was a 2003 University of Pittsburgh study, which found that older adults who lay awake for long periods during the night have a diminished quality of life and double their risk of death. Thankfully, I don’t fit into the demographic of that study, as it was conducted on people over the age of 60.

Are prostitutes sinners?
Jamaica Observer - Apr 23, 2006
‘ Because gambling seems to be innate in some of us, it could not be stopped, so the state regulated it and made some money in the process. The same needs to be done for prostitution because the demand for it is timeless. It is the nature of the beast that even some men who are quite happy at home will want a little on the side. It is uncomplicated and does not involve embarrassing telephone calls coming in when there’s an outside girlfriend in the picture. The religionists will condemn me, but let me say it anyway. The male of the human species is not naturally monogamous. It is mostly economics which will keep a man faithful to the woman at home… There, in Northern Thailand, Revivo has been tested and is becoming popular, not only because it is the least expensive of all available drugs, but also because it is restoring the immune system function of the body so efficiently that in the majority of patients the CD4 counts are getting back to normal within one to three months, and a large number of viral secondary infections are taken care of at the same time. “While this is a new way of looking at the treatment of HIV, the medicine itself is but a sophisticated mixture of traditional Chinese herbs to cure immune system deficiencies. The herbal extracts are taken as a tea twice a day. “There is no doubt in my mind that China will be the next world power. It will not happen in my time, and I believe that one of the main factors leading to the US invading and occupying Iraq is the future scenario which will see a global power play for fossil fuels. China is gobbling up a lot of fossil fuels now, but in the not-too-distant future its demands will grow almost exponentially.

Joslin Diabetes Center-Led Study Reveals New Findings on How Insulin…
Free with registration - Ascribe Higher Education News Service - AccessMyLibrary.com - Apr 23, 2006
This finding is helping scientists in their efforts to isolate the growth factors that do stimulate beta cell growth and understand the defects in insulin production and secretion that cause diabetes. These two receptors have been a major focus of research on beta cell development as scientists seek to find ways to promote the growth of these essential insulin-producing cells in diabetes patients. In two previous Joslin studies, insulin receptor, a protein that mediates the action of insulin, and the receptor for insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), a hormone, which were suggested as critical for.

Sweet ‘water taste’ paradoxically predicts sweet taste…
EurekAlert - EurekAlert (press release) - Apr 23, 2006
Reporting in an advance online publication in Nature, scientists from the Monell Chemical Senses Center describe how certain artificial sweeteners, including sodium saccharin and acesulfame-K, paradoxically inhibit sweet taste at high concentrations. The researchers further report that taste perception switches back to sweetness when these high concentrations are rinsed from the mouth with water, resulting in the aftertaste experience known as sweet ‘water taste. ‘

The Nature article describes the phenomenon of sweet ‘water taste’ and then goes on to explain it at the level of the sweet taste receptor. “These findings will open doors for tweaking the sweet taste receptor and finding new sweeteners and inhibitors that can be used both by food industry and in medicine,” states senior author Paul A… The researchers further report that taste perception switches back to sweetness when these high concentrations are rinsed from the mouth with water, resulting in the aftertaste experience known as sweet ‘water taste. ‘

The Nature article describes the phenomenon of sweet ‘water taste’ and then goes on to explain it at the level of the sweet taste receptor. “These findings will open doors for tweaking the sweet taste receptor and finding new sweeteners and inhibitors that can be used both by food industry and in medicine,” states senior author Paul A. Breslin, PhD, a Monell geneticist. Lead author Veronica Galindo-Cuspinera, PhD, noted while working on a separate study that saccharin