Scientists reported that they have managed to grow in a petri dish active human stomach tissue by using pluripotent stem cells.

Stem cells are some of the most interesting features of the human body. These undifferentiated human cells can divide and differentiate into more such cells. In adults, they act as a sort of repair system. By division, they can replenish and rejuvenate tissue.

Now, scientists have managed to influence the cell’s differentiation process. This led to the development of pluripotent stem cells. These are now used in new, innovative procedures.

One such process led to the creation of functional human stomach tissue. This latter was developed in a laboratory’s petri dish.

The achievement belongs to a Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center team of researchers. Jim Wells was the principal investigator. He is a Ph.D. and Cincinnati Children’s Pluripotent Stem Cell Facility Director. Study results and details were released earlier this week.

They were published in the Nature journal. Released on January 04, the study was titled as follows. “Wnt/β-catenin promotes gastric fundus specification in mice and humans”.

The study managed to grow tissue from a specific area. This is the corpus/fundus part of the stomach. Their human stomach tissue was seen to work normally.

It was able to produce digestive enzymes. Acid was also produced by the said tissue.

This Cincinnati Children research team is behind another similar breakthrough. Another achievement in the area came some two years ago. At the time, they managed to generate an antrum.

An antrum is the stomach region which produces hormones. Now, the team will be joining their research results.

The recent discovery has opened up a new path. Both the antrum and stomach tissue can now be grown. As such, new research can be carried out.

Based on these finds, research can now better study stomach diseases. This could lead to the emergence of new treatments. It could also enrich our knowledge of the human development process.

Wells, the aforementioned lead, went to offer details. He pointed out his team’s current abilities. Researchers can grow both the corpus/fundic and antral tissues. More exactly, they can develop gastric human mini-organs.

These will open further study possibilities. For example, research could analyze their physiological interactions. Human stomach tissue responses to different infections or injuries can also be studied. The effect of pharmacological treatments on the gastric tissues would also be studied.

This latest find caps about 6 years of discoveries. The first was achieved back in 2010. Since then, the team has been using hPSC so as to engineer intestines and stomach regions. hPSCs are the aforementioned pluripotent stem cells.

Researchers have used the generated stomach tissue in specific studies. They have used them so as to identify the potential causes of disease. Treatment methods for said issues were also advanced. The diseases analyzed affect the human gastrointestinal tract.

Now, research will set to analyzed the abilities of the human-engineered stomach tissue organoids. More exactly, they will combine them with intestinal organoids. Through this, they will study how the body controls digestion and nutrient uptakes. Various medical conditions affecting said organs will also be analyzed.

In order to create the stomach tissue, the researchers analyzed mice. They noted their stomach’s embryonic development. As such, they stumbled upon a fundamental genetic pathway.

This pathway was later manipulated in a petri dish. Through it, the scientists managed to trigger a human fundus organoids formation process.

According to Wells, the gastric-fundus stomach tissue formation took around six weeks.

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A new study has determined that living next to busy roads could potentially account as an added risk factor for the appearance of dementia.

The world is moving at an increasingly faster pace. As such, the traffic is higher and the roads are busier as everyone is trying to get somewhere. But living next to busy roads may have an unexpected, long-term effect.

A new study went to determine the effects of living in such areas. Research was carried out by a team of Canadian researchers. They were led by Hing Chen. The latter is part of the Public Health Ontario.

Research results were released earlier this week. The study was published in The Lancet journal. It was released on January 04 and titled as follows. “Living near major roads and the incidence of dementia, Parkinson’s disease, and multiple sclerosis: a population-based cohort study.”

Data for the study surveyed 6.6 million adults. These were all Ontario, Canada residents. The analyzed adults were aged in between 20 to 85 years old. All of them have been living for five or more years in the province.

Researchers analyzed their health records. This led to the following results. According to them, people living next to busy roads are more likely to develop dementia.

More exactly, those living within 50 meters of such roads. They were noted to present a 7 percent increased risk of dementia.

Their results were compared to other residents. These live farther away from busy roads and heavy traffic. To be more exact, they are situated 300 meters away from such areas.

When studying the records, the scientists analyzed certain factors. They calculated the likelihood of developing certain diseases. These included the aforementioned dementia. Multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s diseases were also on the list.

However, only dementia revealed an increased incidence risk. No links have been found leading to the other two issues.

Further analyses also revealed the following facts. Distancing from the busy roads reduced the dementia risk. By 100 – 200 meters away, it had already fallen to merely 2 percent.

Living for a longer period of time near such areas also had an effect. As such, the length of time is also a potential factor. It was determined that people that have lived their whole lives within 50 meters of busy roads were more exposed. They had a 12 to 14 percent increased risk of dementia.

The exact reasons behind the increased dementia risks are as yet unknown. However, pollutants are considered as being a potential factor.

Current studies identified the road to dementia increased risks. Still, it did not identify its exact and direct causes. More factors are believed to have contributed to the rise.

The aforementioned study lead pointed out some facts. Diseases such as dementia are increasingly more common. However, as Chen stated, there is still much to learn about them. Their exact causes have yet to be determined. Specific prevention methods are still being established.

Chen declared that the current study could have introduced a new potential factor. Busy roads could be considered environmental stressors. As such, they could also influence the dementia incidence levels.

More research one the matter would be needed. It could help determine or demonstrate the new, potential disease. factor.

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Legalization of marijuana has been a debating topic for many people. A lot of them believed that only bad things can happen if is legalized. This is not the case since in some states that have legalized marijuana the number of traffic deaths has declined.

Many people believed that the legalization of marijuana is going to cause more traffic deaths but in fact, it did exactly the opposite. In the last 20 years, more than 27 states legalized medicinal marijuana. A new report shows that deaths on average have declined since 1985.

The report analyzed more than 1 million fatalities in the US between 1985 and 2014. The researchers observed that the traffic deaths decreased by more than 11 percent on average since medicinal marijuana was legalized. The decrease was particularly high (12%) when it comes to people aged between 25 and 44.

The authors of the report mentioned that this is a big number. The findings were published in the American Journal of Public Health. One of the authors of the study, Benjamin Hansen, mentioned that public safety is not affected by the legalization of marijuana. He said that access to medicinal marijuana can even improve the public safety.

The authors mentioned that like alcohol, marijuana is a drug and it can affect the ability to drive. This is why people shouldn’t drive under the influence. The report did not prove that there is a link between medicinal marijuana and the decline of traffic deaths.

The authors mentioned that they can’t prove the cause and effect and that they just observed the decline of traffic deaths. The authors also mentioned that people who consume marijuana might be more aware of the fact that they shouldn’t drive after they smoked pot.

The report also shows that for every state the number of deaths caused by traffic was different. For instance, in New Mexico, the decrease was by 17% and then it increased. The authors mentioned that these are just numbers and they can’t prove the link between medicinal marijuana and the number of deaths caused by car accidents.

What is your opinion about the legalization of marijuana and traffic deaths?

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An experimental brain cancer treatment has shown promise in the patient who tried it is alive after a year of treatment. This type of treatment was meant for leukemia and lymphomas but now scientists are trying the same treatment for brain cancer.

This treatment involves the immune system that beats cancer on its own. The name of the treatment is named Immunotherapy and it is not tested for prostate, colon, and breast cancer. A new report has shown that this type of treatment can be used for brain cancer too.

The man who tested this experimental brain cancer treatment is a 50-year-old and has glioblastoma, a very aggressive form of brain tumor. This man was treated with radiation, anti-tumor drug therapies, and even surgery. None of these treatments were effective because its cancer came back and it also spread.

The researchers tried this treatment for this man. In order to test this treatment, the researchers extracted immune cells from the man. After that, the researchers engineered the cells to express proteins that would destroy the tumor cells.

The immune cells were injected into the brain. This was the first time that these types of cells were injected into the brain. This can be extremely dangerous and this is why nobody tried this before. After less than 4 months the tumors started to get smaller. After 6 months of the treatment, all tumors disappeared.

“If we can do the same for other patients, that would be an amazing accomplishment that many decades of work and research on glioblastoma have never done,” says Badie, the leader of the study.

The patients did not experience any health problems after the treatment and he has recovered. This is not the only one who participated in this trial. On this trial participated 9 people. All of these people has similar results.

The researchers mentioned that they want to make more tests in order to make sure that this can be used to treat people who have brain cancer. This can be a revolution when it comes to brain cancer because there is little chance of survival for these patients. Let’s hope that the next trials go even better than this one.

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There are many years since the researchers have been trying to figure out why the number of heart attacks spike every Christmas season. Some believe that people have to deal with a tremendous amount of stress during this time of the year due to busy schedules.

Also, they are more likely to end up with food-borne illnesses caused by rich meals. Alcohol consumption can play a major role as well. In other words, all these factors combined might be associated with the elevated number of heart attacks in the United States.

Although during the winter months, the freezing temperatures can restrict blood vessels, the scientists have eliminated this possibility during the latest study. The team calculated the rates of heart attacks in New Zealand during the holiday season to see whether they were similar to the ones in the US.

They chose New Zealand because the country is smaller, so the researchers could track the population easier. Also, the winter in New Zealand is like the summer in the US. Plus, they celebrate Christmas on December 25^th too.

The researchers analyzed the mortality rate of heart attacks in New Zealand between 1988 and 2013. Based on the estimates, the number of cardiovascular disease events increased by four percent during the holiday season outside of medical facilities.

In addition to this, the victims were slightly younger than those who died of similar causes over the course of the year. Previous studies have shown that the mortality rate of heart disease is five percent higher during the holiday season, including the Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

A group of British researchers monitored the mortality rate of cardiac events in England a decade ago, and they concluded that there was no spike in heart attacks during Christmas, but there was one on New Year’s Eve.

The scientists haven’t found a direct cause yet that might influence the increasing number of deaths caused by heart attacks during the holiday season. However, they have two possible theories.

People might postpone medical care this time of year because they are busy and they want to spend more time with their families. The problem is that some of them die in the meantime. The second theory might be that many hospitals lack qualified professionals.

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Pregnancy is among the most drastic changes experienced by a woman’s body. However, a new study revealed that during this process, that besides the body, a woman’s brain also experience changes which can change her outlook on motherhood and the intentions of other people.

According to a new study recently published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, pregnancy changes the size as well as the structure of several regions in the brain which are responsible for a person’s understanding of feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and even the intentions of others.

During their extensive analysis, researchers discovered that the women who scored higher on a test regarding the strength of their maternal bonds also experienced the highest degree of changes in the brain during their pregnancy. The brain changes can even last at least two years after birth.

Elseline Hoekzema, the coauthor of study as well as a senior brain scientist at the Leiden University, Netherlands, revealed that they haven’t investigated the overall extent of the changes for a longer period than two years.

Dr. Hoekzema noted that the brain changes experience during pregnancy can last in laboratory mice until old age. However, at this point, it isn’t entirely clear if women experience these changes for such a long period. As such, more research is required to determine the overall impact of pregnancy on a woman’s brain and her outlook on life and relationships.

For their study, the researchers included 25 women who were ready to become mothers for the first time, as well as 19 of their male partners. Both groups underwent high-resolution MRI brain scans before conception.  The researchers scanned the brain of the participants again after giving birth, as well as 20 new women who had never given birth, and 17 of their male partners.

The brain scans revealed that the new mother experienced a significant loss of gray matter in several areas of the brain, which are commonly associated with emotional intelligence, and general social cognition. Scientists were immediately able to detect the brain changes, but they are uncertain on how to interpret them. Scientists are torn between the benefits of brain changes during pregnancy with the potential negative effects of losing gray matter.

What do you think about the changes of the brain during pregnancy

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Depression is one of the most common mental health problems in the world, experienced by persons in various fields of work and from various demographics.  One field in which depression is common but patients don’t seek treatment is commercial flight companies, more specifically in airline pilots.

A study of depression in airline pilots was started after the murder-suicide of the pilot from the European airline Germanwings. The researchers were interested to discover how prevalent depression symptoms are in airline pilots.

For their study, the researchers recruited a number of 3,485 active airline pilots through emails, newsletter, postcards as well as advertisements. The participants were required to fill an anonymous health survey, consisting of various questions aimed to detect symptoms of depression.

After compiling all the data after an extensive analysis, the researchers revealed that out of all the airline pilots surveyed, a number of 426, or 13 percent of total, met the conditions for a depression diagnostic. Additionally, 75 pilots reported in the last two weeks they were thinking about self-harm or they had suicidal thoughts.

Although most of the airline pilots surveyed were men, the study found that among the four percent of female pilots, the depression rate was higher than in men. This trend is compatible with the rate seen in the general population. Overall, depression symptoms were more likely to occur in pilots who were on sleep-aid medication or verbally or sexually harassed. To make matters worse, the study found that all the participants were unlikely to seek treatment for their depression because they might lose their job.

The study was published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health by a team of researchers led by Joseph G. Allen from Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He emphasized the fact that study should not undermine the public’s confidence in airline pilots.

Pilots are heavily vetted and monitored continuously throughout their career. Additionally, the FAA announced back in 2010, that pilots who suffer from mild depression will be able to continue flying as long as they are taking one of the four approved antidepressants for a period of 12 months with satisfactory results.

What do you think about the depression symptoms of airline pilots?

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Abortion has been and will probably continue to be one of the most controversial issues in the United States. Researchers have completed a new study which reveals that the process does not lead to any mental health issues for the woman. However, denying access to such a service is detrimental to the mental health of women.

The supposed negative mental health effects of undergoing an abortion have long been used as an argument against the procedure, which may have affected the decision some women have taken. However, in this regard, there were some shortcomings regarding the data of previous studies.

As such, a team of researchers from the University of California in San Francisco, led by social psychologist Dr. Antonia Biggs, have devised a study meant to improve on those shortcomings and finally clarify the impact of abortion on the mental health of patients.

For their study, the researchers recruit around 1,000 women from 30 different abortion facilities found in 21 states. The participants had an average age of around 25-years old, and were examined for a period of five-years after either undergoing the abortion procedure or after they were refused treatment. The team of researchers proceeded with the study by interviewing each woman one week after they sought an abortion as well as every six months after that for up to five years.

After they compiled the data, the researchers revealed that 452 women were under two weeks of some facilities gestational limit, and 273 got an abortion within their first trimester of pregnancy. However, 231 participants did not receive an abortion as they were three weeks past a facility’s abortion limit, as it was revealed in the first interview. Among those denied an abortion, researchers found that 161 had given birth, while the rest either suffered miscarriages or had an abortion somewhere else.

The study, which was published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, revealed that all the women who either received or were denied an abortion had similar levels of depression in the first week. However, only those who were denied had a higher reported level of anxiety and a lower life satisfaction and self-esteem compared to those who received the procedure.

Nonetheless, after six months, the mental health of both groups of women was very similar, without any long-term negative effects.

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While the opioid epidemic is getting worse a new study discovered that more and more adults in the US are taking psychiatric drugs. These types of drugs are used to treat conditions like anxiety, insomnia, and depression. More and more American adults suffer from depression and anxiety, thus contributing to the increased use of prescription phychiatric drugs.

A new study found that almost 17% of American adults take psychiatric drugs to treat one of these conditions. This is concerning because it shows that people are more stressed and they are developing mental conditions. This could lead to worse conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

Another problem with the fact that 1 in 6 adults are taking psychiatric drugs is the side effects. Every drug has side effects but these drugs tend to have more than usual pills. First of all, people can get addicted to these drugs and the side effects caused by psychiatric drugs can be long-term ones.

Experts mentioned that people can be affected even after giving up these drugs because they have withdrawal effects. Once a person gives up on psychiatric drugs, the individual in question might feel even worse than before taking these drugs.

The study also showed that women are more likely to take this type of drugs. 1 in 5 women mentioned that they are taking psychiatric drugs. When it comes to men, they tend to think twice before taking drugs.

White men and women were more likely to take these drugs than Hispanics and Afro-Americans. The researcher also discovered that older people tend to take more pills. This survey was made in 2013 and it continued in 2014 to see if people quit their prescription drugs or continue to take them. A lot of people continued the treatment and even added other drugs.

This study should be a wake-up call for doctors because they need to be more careful when they prescribe this type of drugs. It is important to know exactly what your patients need and want. Doctors who prescribed psychiatric drugs like Xanax and Zoloft need to check on their patients regularly. Side effects should be monitored carefully.

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Teenagers from the US are quitting their bad habits. In the last 40 years, this is the first time the teen alcohol and drug use rate has declined. Until now, every year this rate was alarmingly increasing. Apparently, this new generation of American teens decided to give up bad habits and live a healthier life.

Teen alcohol and drug use rate shows a big decline in 2016. A survey which started in 1975 showed that in the last 40 years teenagers tended to smoke and drink a lot. This survey showed that in 1991 more than 11% of teens smoked more than a half of pack a day. In 2016, less than 2% mentioned that they smoke half a pack a day.

Even the use of electronic cigarettes has declined since last year with more than 3%. This is great news for the health of American teenagers. The best results were recorded in the case of alcohol consumption. Researchers found an almost 20% decrease in the rate of alcohol use in the case of 12 graders. In 2001 more than 53% mentioned that they got drunk at least once. This year only 37% said that.

Specialists mentioned that social media might be responsible for the decrease of teen alcohol and drug use. They said that video games could have helped too. This is because children and young adults are too busy chatting online or playing games to develop these bad habits like using drugs, smoking or drinking.

There are some things that never change. Marijuana use among high school seniors is the same as usual. More than 22% of students mentioned that they smoked pot in the last month and more than 5% mentioned that they use this drug daily. These numbers are the same as last year’s numbers.

When it comes to 8th-graders the number changed, declining with more than 1%. Only 5.4% of 8th-graders said that they used marijuana in the last month.  In order to complete this survey more than 45,000 12th, 8th, and 10th graders were interviewed.  These teenagers were from both private and public schools all over the US.

All in all the survey showed that teen alcohol and drug use has declined in 2016 which is good news for American teenagers. The survey also showed that this is the first time this happens in over 40 years.

What is your opinion about the fact that fewer teens are smoking and drinking?

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