Fat overload kills mammalian cells — key culprit identified

The internal “skeleton” (in red) of cells is altered by exposure to high fat.Investigating the harmful health effects of excess fat, researchers at the School of Medicine have identified a protein that triggers death in mammalian cells overloaded with saturated fat. When the researchers halted production of the protein, the cells were able to thrive in ordinarily damaging amounts of saturated fat.

Vitamin A analog is a potential lung cancer preventative with few side effects

The ideal substance to prevent cancer would block tumor growth without causing unpleasant or dangerous side effects. Researchers at the School of Medicine now report that a compound related to vitamin A shows promise in preventing or slowing tumor growth in mice prone to lung cancer. The compound, called bexarotene, doesn’t cause the severe skin irritations that have limited the use of other vitamin A derivatives in cancer therapies.

Caloric restriction appears to prevent primary aging in the heart

Vegetables are a staple of calorie restriction diets.Eating a very low-calorie yet nutritionally balanced diet is good for your heart. Studying heart function in members of an organization called the Calorie Restriction Society, investigators at the School of Medicine found that their hearts functioned like the hearts of much younger people. The researchers report their findings in the Jan. 17 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

Breast cancer may be several diseases

Physicians have come to understand that what we call breast cancer is really several — probably at least five — different diseases that need different treatments and have different outcomes. Now researchers at the School of Medicine and collaborating institutions in the United States and Canada plan to evaluate these breast cancer subtypes and determine the likely prognosis and most effective treatment for each.

Tumor cells that border normal tissue are told to leave

The thin, single-cell boundary where a tumor meets normal tissue is the most dangerous part of a cancer according to a new study by scientists at the School of Medicine. The researchers found that tumor cells bordering normal tissue receive signals that tell them to wander away from the tumor, allowing the cancer cells to establish deadly metastatic tumors elsewhere in the body.

January 2006 Radio Service

Listed below are this month’s featured news stories. • Non-visual functions of the eye (week of Jan. 4) • Calorie restriction dieting (week of Jan. 11) • Alzheimer’s gene (week of Jan. 18) • Genes and side effects (week of Jan. 25)

Variation in bitter-taste receptor gene increases risk for alcoholism

Alcoholism may be linked to taste.A team of researchers, led by investigators at the School of Medicine, has found that a gene variant for a bitter-taste receptor on the tongue is associated with an increased risk for alcohol dependence. The research team studied DNA samples from 262 families, all of which have at least three alcoholic individuals. Investigators report in the January issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics on the variation in a taste receptor gene on chromosome 7 called TAS2R16.

Preferred treatment method for advanced ovarian cancer announced

The National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, issued an announcement encouraging treatment with anticancer drugs via two methods, after surgery, for women with advanced ovarian cancer. The combined methods, which deliver drugs into a vein and directly into the abdomen, extend overall survival for women with advanced ovarian cancer by about a year. The Siteman Cancer Center at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital participated in the NCI-supported clinical trial which led to this clinical announcement.
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