Scientists are reporting this week newly released study results they say provide further evidence of the therapeutic potential of stem cells derived from bone marrow for patients suffering from acute lung injury, one of the most common causes of respiratory failure in intensive care units. Led by Drs. Michael A. Matthay and Jae W.

Progestins are used in hormone replacement therapies to counteract the negative effects of estrogen on the uterus and reduce the risk of uterine cancer. However, evidence in recent studies and clinical trials has demonstrated that progestins increase the risk of breast cancer. Now, University of Missouri scientists have compared four types of progestins used in hormone replacement therapies and found significantly different outcomes on the progression of breast cancer in an animal model depending on the type of progestins used……..

Primary dysmenorrhea (PDM), or menstrual cramps, is the most common gynecological disorder in women of childbearing age. Lower abdominal pain starts with the onset of menstrual flow and this ongoing pain stimulus can cause alterations throughout the nervous system. In a study scheduled for publication in the recent issue of PAIN, scientists report abnormal changes in the structure of the brain in PDM patients, whether or not they are in fact experiencing pain……..

Everyone experiences social stress, whether it is nervousness over a job interview, difficulty meeting people at parties, or angst over giving a speech. In a new report, UCLA scientists have discovered that how your brain responds to social stressors can influence the body’s immune system in ways that may negatively affect health……..

It comes as no surprise that a number of children suffer when a parent is behind bars. But as rates of incarceration grew over the past 30 years, scientists were slow to focus on the collateral damage to children. The best estimate says that at any one time, 1.7 million (about 2.3 percent) of all American children have a parent in prison, says Julie Poehlmann, a professor in the School of Human Ecology and investigator at the Waisman Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison……..

These days people commonly don’t die from a heart attack. But the damage to heart muscle is irreversible, and most patients eventually succumb to congestive heart failure, the most common cause of death in developed countries. Stem cells now offer hope for achieving what the body can’t do: mending broken hearts. Engineers and physicians at the University of Washington have built a scaffold that supports the growth and integration of stem cell-derived cardiac muscle cells. A description of the scaffold, which supports the growth of cardiac cells in the lab and encourages blood vessel growth in living animals, is published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences……..

Researchers have shed new light on how cells make specific interactions during development — in the hope of one day learning more about human developmental disorders.

Using deep brain stimulation on patients with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease is safe and may help improve memory, medical researchers say.

Neurobiologists have discovered a potential cure for degenerative vision diseases leading to terminal blindness. Scientists may have discovered a cure to degenerative vision diseases such as retinitis pigmentosa. By manipulating proteins that cause blindness in mice the scientists have successfully restored vision in the light-sensing cells of the retina.

For people with chronic back pain, having a little adversity in your life can be protective and beneficial, according to a new study.