Bitter taste receptors may hold the key to managing preterm labor
This could be good news for those trying to prevent preterm labor: New research published online in The FASEB Journal suggests that exposing bitter taste receptors in the uterus to certain substances...
View ArticleCells that make blood vessels can also make tumors and enable their spread
While it's widely held that tumors can produce blood vessels to support their growth, scientists now have evidence that cells key to blood vessel formation can also produce tumors and enable their spread.
View ArticleSkin cell model advances study of genetic mutation linked to heart disease,...
Using a new skin cell model, researchers have overcome a barrier that previously prevented the study of living tissue from people at risk for early heart disease and stroke. This research could lead to...
View ArticleCa2+, the intercellular signal in arterioles
Vasoconstriction must be balanced with vasodilation, particularly in the arterioles that supply tissues with blood. Endothelial cells protrude through holes in the internal elastic lamina in arterioles...
View ArticleResearchers make significant progress in engineering digestive system tissues
Researchers at Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine have reached important milestones in their quest to engineer replacement tissue in the lab to treat digestive system conditions - from...
View ArticleHypertensive women may benefit most from drugs that directly block the action...
When women are hypertensive their physicians should consider measuring their level of aldosterone, a hormone that at high levels damages the cardiovascular system, scientists say.
View ArticleArtificial blood vessels mimic rare accelerated aging disease
Biomedical engineers have grown miniature human blood vessels that exhibit many of the symptoms and drug reactions associated with Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome—an extremely rare genetic disease...
View ArticleNew research shows promise for improving vascular access for hemodialysis...
Approximately 500,000 Americans with end-stage renal disease rely on hemodialysis to survive. Hemodialysis requires repeated access to the blood. Failure to maintain adequate access to the vasculature...
View ArticleNew generation drugs may hold key to alternative erectile dysfunction treatment
Close to 70 percent of men with erectile dysfunction (ED) respond to the ED drug sildenafil. However, only about 50 percent of men with diabetes—a population commonly affected by ED—achieve positive...
View ArticleStem cells could offer hope for patients with lung damage from COPD and asthma
Early stage trials have shown promise for a cell-based therapy for treating lung tissue damaged by respiratory diseases.
View ArticleA need for bananas? Dietary potassium regulates calcification of arteries
Bananas and avocados—foods that are rich in potassium—may help protect against pathogenic vascular calcification, also known as hardening of the arteries.
View ArticleNew target emerging for treating diabetes-related blood vessel damage
A key enzyme that helps our proteins fold and function properly may also be a good therapeutic target to improve blood vessel health in diseases like diabetes and atherosclerosis, scientists say.
View ArticleProteome of the human heart mapped for the first time
A healthy heart beats about two billion times during a lifetime, thanks to the interplay of more than 10,000 proteins. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry (MPIB) and the German...
View ArticleBeating heart patch is large enough to repair the human heart
Biomedical engineers at Duke University have created a fully functioning artificial human heart muscle large enough to patch over damage typically seen in patients who have suffered a heart attack. The...
View ArticleResearchers create unique bioengineered organoids for modeling colorectal cancer
A new study describes a unique bioengineered tissue construct, or organoid, into which colorectal cancer cells are embedded, creating a model of the tumor and surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM)....
View ArticleScientists rewrite our understanding of how arteries mend
Scientists from The University of Manchester have discovered how the severity of trauma to arterial blood vessels governs how the body repairs itself.
View ArticleNew hope for stopping an understudied heart disease in its tracks
The diminutive size of our aortic valve—just shy of a quarter—belies its essential role in pushing oxygen-rich blood from the heart into the aorta, our body's largest vessel, and from there to all...
View ArticleHeart-muscle patches made with human cells improve heart attack recovery
Large, human cardiac-muscle patches created in the lab have been tested, for the first time, on large animals in a heart attack model. This clinically relevant approach showed that the patches...
View ArticleMagnetically applied MicroRNAs could one day help relieve constipation
Constipation is an underestimated and debilitating medical issue related to the opioid epidemic. As a growing concern, researchers look to new tools to help patients with this side effect of opioid use...
View ArticleStudy reveals how MRSA infection compromises lymphatic function
Infections of the skin or other soft tissues with the hard-to-treat MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) bacteria appear to permanently compromise the lymphatic system, which is crucial...
View Article