Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Study: Capsules around insulin cells may help transplants
- Multiple sclerosis findings could help pinpoint cause
- After a decades-long search, scientists identify new genetic risk…
- Women more prone to brain damage from alcohol abuse than men
- Designing healthy hospitals

Study: Capsules around insulin cells may help transplants
USA Today - Jul 29, 2007
We hope it will help us understand the disease process and what’s been going on,” Dr. Aravind Arepally, an assistant professor of radiology and surgery at Hopkins, said in a telephone interview. Their findings were published online Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine. The porous capsules had openings large enough to let insulin out for the body to use, but not big enough for immune cells to get in and attack the transplants. In the first experiment, the capsules — less than one hundred twenty-eighths of an inch across — were implanted in diabetic mice. The researchers said the blood sugar levels of the mice returned to normal in about a week. More than half of the mice that did not receive transplants died.

Multiple sclerosis findings could help pinpoint cause
USA Today - Jul 29, 2007
Researchers discovered one gene in the 1970s called HLA (human leukocyte antigen) that raises the risk of developing MS, and they knew that other genes probably play a role, he says. But the intense search to find them has been disappointing — until now. In the July 29 online edition of Nature Genetics, Haines and his colleagues pored over previous studies to identify genes that appeared to have a role in the disease. They then collected blood from more than 10,000 people, MS patients and healthy subjects alike. The DNA was extracted from the samples, and researchers homed in on suspect genes. They found that a variation in the interleukin 7 receptor gene increased the risk of developing MS by 20% to 30%. A second study in Nature Genetics confirmed that finding… A second study in Nature Genetics confirmed that finding. A person who inherits this gene variation, however, isn’t guaranteed to get MS, Haines says. To actually get the disease, people probably need to inherit other genes that put them at higher risk, says study co-author Margaret Pericak-Vance of the University of Miami School of Medicine. In addition, the disease might require a trigger — such as exposure to a virus, says John Richert of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society in New York. David Hafler of the Harvard Medical School and an international consortium of researchers also identified the interleukin 7 receptor gene as a risk factor for MS. But Hafler’s team identified a second gene that might play a role: the interleukin 2 receptor gene. Hafler’s team gathered DNA from about 12,000 people, both MS patients and healthy subjects.

After a decades-long search, scientists identify new genetic risk…
EurekAlert - EurekAlert (press release) - Jul 29, 2007
and Europe, and looking for single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are single-letter variations in a gene’s DNA code. Published simultaneously today in the New England Journal of Medicine and Nature Genetics, the studies demonstrate an association between MS and SNPs in two genes that encode interleukin receptors, proteins that serve as antennae on the surface of immune cells. Both studies were supported by NINDS and the
National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The Nature Genetics study received
additional support from the National Institute of General Medical
Sciences (NIGMS). The NEJM study was also supported in part by the
Penates Foundation. They were conducted by overlapping teams of scientists that used different gene-hunting strategies.

Women more prone to brain damage from alcohol abuse than men
News-Medical.net - Jul 29, 2007
The study led by Kristine Wiren, Ph. , associate professor of behavioral neuroscience and medicine, OHSU School of Medicine, and research biologist, PVAMC Research Service, found that female mice are more susceptible to neurotoxic effects of alcohol withdrawal, including significantly increased brain cell death, than male mice. It also found the gender difference exists whether the animals are prone to severe withdrawal due to a genetic predisposition, or resistant to it. Wiren said she was surprised by the results. “We designed the experiment to be able to identify gene expression differences between lines of mice that are genetically selected for severe alcohol withdrawal compared with mice that are resistant to alcohol withdrawal,” Wiren said. “I thought there would be a difference between the genders, but I didn’t think it would be the most important thing… The females have all this apoptosis (cell death) going on, and the males instead may have repair going on. ”
Such brain damage may underlie debilitating cognitive dysfunction and motor deficits observed in some alcoholics, according to the study. In addition, disruption of inhibitory functions in the prefrontal cortex may contribute to excessive drinking and the self-sustaining nature of alcoholism. “The results suggest that females are more vulnerable to neurotoxic consequences of alcohol withdrawal,” Wiren noted. “Everyone should be concerned about chronic alcohol consumption and severe intoxication, but females may be more vulnerable. ” This data is “consistent with some controversial human studies that suggest that females do develop more brain damage than male alcoholics. ”
Future studies, including one funded by the VA, will examine the role that hormones play in response to alcohol withdrawal, include the possibility that the male hormone androgen exacerbates cell death in males.

Designing healthy hospitals
Toronto Star - Jul 29, 2007
‘"I wanted something to be like the family room of the hospital, a comfortable gathering spot," says Farrow, 44, who last month received the International Academy for Design and Health’s first Architect Award. The Stockholm-based organization recognized Farrow’s contribution to "health and humanity though the medium of architecture and design. "The hospital also received two awards from the academy, which is linked to the Karolinska Institute, a research hospital whose scientists choose the Nobel Prize winners in medicine or physiology. Using natural materials to create a feeling of well-being and engage the mind extends well beyond the public areas. Light wells bathe the patient waiting areas in natural light. On a lower floor, where patients prepare for radiation treatment, they wait in a cozy nook, small in scale, set around a fireplace. It’s a setting you’d find in a home, something familiar and comforting in everyday life.