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Survey Flushes Out The Secrets Of Americans' Bathroom Habits
Whether it"s "powdering your nose" or settling in for a good read, Americans spend a significant amount of time in the bathroom. According to a recent Yankelovich survey, many Americans spend more than 30 minutes each day in the bathroom that adds up to nearly eight days each year - which is more than double that of the average vacation trip . And contrary to popular belief, men spend almost as much time in the bathroom as women.
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Learning More About The Placebo Effect
In this trial, a sample of alcohol-dependent patients received naltrexone, acamprosate or placebo for 12 weeks. While there were no differences in outcomes between treatment groups, those who believed they had been taking active medication consumed fewer alcoholic drinks and reported less alcohol dependence and cravings. That is, irrespective of actual treatment, perceived medication allocation predicted health outcomes.
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Parasites Ready To Jump
Transposons are mobile genetic elements found in the hereditary material of humans and other organisms. They can replicate and the new copies can insert at novel sites in the genome. Because this threatens the whole organism, molecular mechanisms have evolved which can repress transposon activity. Professor Klaus Förstemann of the Gene Center of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich and a team of researchers working with the fruitfly Drosophila melanogaster have now uncovered a new type of cellular defence that acts against DNA sequences present in high copy numbers inside the cell, even if they have not integrated into the genome. Small molecules of RNA (a class of nucleic acid closely related to the genetic material DNA) play the central role. "Transposons are genomic parasites, so to speak", says Förstemann. "If they are allowed to proliferate, the genome can become unstable or cancers can develop. We now want to find out whether mammalian cells possess this newly discovered defence mechanism and to elucidate precisely how it works." (EMBO Journal online, 30 July 2009.)
Diagnostics

Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis May Pose Neurological Risks

Preimplantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) has helped many couples conceive healthy children and is generally considered a safe practice. However, a new long-term analysis of PGD in mice suggests that this procedure may increase risks of weight gain and memory decline in adulthood. PGD is used alongside assisted reproduction technologies to ensure couples that may be carriers of genetic disease (e.g. Ashkenazi Jews who have a high incidence of Tay-Sachs among their population) don"t pass on defective genes to their children. While PGD is not believed to pose any serious health risks, the procedure does involve manipulating the developing embryo and no rigorous long-term studies have been carried out. Ran Huo, Qi Zhou and colleagues used a mouse model to examine how a blastomere biopsy, as the key manipulation during the PGD procedure, could affect fetal, neonatal and adult development. They found that there were no differences in embryo development prior to uterine implantation in the biopsied and control groups, which is consistent with results found in humans. However, following implantation, successful births from biopsied embryos were significantly lower than in controls. Following birth, the authors tracked many physical and behavioral properties; the two groups of mice were similar in many respects, though mice in the biopsied group on average had higher body weight and poorer memory in maze tests. To get a more detailed picture of these memory defects, the authors performed a proteomic analysis of adult mouse brains; 36 proteins displayed significant differences between biopsied and control groups, 17 of which are closely associated with neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimers and Down Syndrome. The authors suggest that the developing nervous system may be sensitive to blastomere biopsy, and that more studies should be performed to address any possible long-term adverse effects of PGD to ensure its safety. From the study: "Evaluation of Blastomere Biopsy Using a Mouse Model Indicates the Potential High Risk of Neurodegenerative Disorders in the Offspring" by Yang Yu, Jindao Wu, Yong Fan, Zhuo Lv, Xuejiang Guo, Chun Zhao, Rong Zhou, Zhuo Zhang, Fuqiang Wang, Min Xiao, Ling Chen, Hui Zhu, Wen Chen, Min Lin, Jiayin Liu, Zuomin Zhou, Liu Wang, Ran Huo, Qi Zhou and Jiahao Sha Article Link: http://www.mcponline.org/cgi/content/full/8/7/1490 Corresponding Authors: Ran Huo, Laboratory of Reproductive Medicine, Nanjing Medical University, China. Qi Zhou, State Key Laboratory of Reproductive Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China;. Nick Zagorski American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology


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