‘Secret handshake’ detected between sperm and uterus

A team of researchers has discovered the making of a “secret handshake” between sperm and the cells lining the uterus that finally let one sperm out of nearly 200 million to make it through and fertilise a single egg, say researchers.

Uterine cells express a receptor that recognizes a glycan molecule on the surface of sperm cells.

It’s possible that this interaction may adjust the female’s immune response and help sperm make it through the leukocytic reaction, said the researchers. The leukocytic reaction is not well understood.

What we do know, explained molecular anthropologist  is that “after crossing the cervix, millions of sperm that arrive in the uterus are faced by a barrage of macrophages and neutrophils”.

This attack by the innate immune system kills a majority of the sperm cells in semen, winnowing hundreds of millions of sperm down to just a few hundred that enter the fallopian tubes.

The defensive response may be beneficial in preventing polyspermy, when an egg is fertilized by more than one sperm and cannot develop.

“It’s somewhat embarrassing how little we can say about what this [interaction] means,” said  a researcher.

Reproduction, he said, “is a very, very delicate tug-of-war at many levels. The fact that there is (also) this immune game going on is completely fascinating.”

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                      FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                    

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Reasons Why Broccoli Is Called A Superfood !

Everyone knows that eating veggies is incredibly good for your health, but if we're really honest with ourselves, a plate of broccoli has nothing on a dish full of curly fries! However, a new study  has just discovered yet another reason why we should eat our veggies, which is particularly important for those of us who suffer from digestive issues.

When working with lab mice, the team discovered that their mice could better tolerate digestive issues after eating broccoli than mice who weren't fed any veg. According to a professor of agricultural sciences, "there are a lot of reasons we want to explore helping with gastrointestinal health and one reason is if you have problems, like a leaky gut, and start to suffer inflammation, that may then lead to other conditions, like arthritis and heart disease."
The researchers believe that broccoli was effective thanks to the way certain compounds it contains bind to stomach receptors called Aryl hydrocarbon receptors, or AHRs. When cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli are broken down in the stomach, one of the resulting compounds is called indolocarbazole, or ICZ, which in turn has been found to bind to AHR.

"When ICZ binds to and activates the Aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR) in the intestinal lining, it aids in maintaining a healthy balance in the gut flora and immune surveillance, and enhances host barrier function," according to the research team. "This may help prevent diseases, such as various cancers and Crohn's Disease, caused by inflammation in the lining of the gut."
In their study, the researchers worked with two types of mice which were genetically different. One type had an enhanced ability to bind ICZ to AHR, while the other type had a reduced ability to do so. All mice were placed on a diet which contained either 15% broccoli or which contained no broccoli at all. The results showed that after being given substances to cause digestive issues, only those mice that had consumed broccoli managed to escape the uncomfortable symptoms.

To consume an equivalent amount of broccoli, humans would need to eat 3 and a half cups each day, which may definitely be quite a lot for some people. However, the Prof. claims that there may be alternative ways of getting the ICZ-to-AHR binding benefits.
"Now, three and a half cups is a lot, but it's not a huge amount, really," he claims. "We used a cultivar — or variety — with about half the amount of this chemical in it, and there are cultivars with twice as much. Also, Brussels sprouts have three times as much, which would mean a cup of Brussels sprouts could get us to the same level."

The researchers will also investigate ways to deliver the health benefits of broccoli to people who need to avoid high fiber levels in their diets because of digestive issues.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                                             FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                                                             https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                                       FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

Researchers Engineer A Way To Make Leukemia Cells Kill Each Other

Researchers have been battling to find the cure for cancer since we began to understand what cancer really was. A cure is the ultimate goal, but most medical professionals and patients would be ecstatic even hearing about new treatments. Current cancer treatments often come rife with side effects so severe that many choose to forgo them altogether. Stopping the growth of malicious cancer cells is the main goal of treatment, and removing them altogether is even better. The problem is, this kind of treatment almost always causes damage to surrounding healthy cells.

A treatment that changes cancerous cells into healthy, supportive cells sounds ideal. Transforming malignant cells into antibodies that would attack remaining cancer cells sounds too good to be true. Thanks to a groundbreaking study by scientists , this new, powerful form of cancer therapy could really be on the horizon.

An Accidental Discovery

The laboratory team was working on therapies for certain immune cell or blood factor deficiencies when they noticed some unusual effects of antibodies on marrow cells. They had been searching for antibodies that activate growth-factor receptors on immature bone marrow cells, meaning the antibodies would be able to induce these cells to mature into specific blood cell types.

After successfully identifying a number of antibodies that activated the bone marrow cell-receptors this way, the researchers noticed that some of the antibodies were having unexpected effects on the cells. Some of them were maturing into cells that were radically different from what had been expected, such as neural cells. This got the team thinking, could this method be used to convert cancerous marrow cells (leukemia cells) into non-cancerous cells?

Transformation

In the new study, a professor  and senior investigator, teamed up with colleagues, an assistant professor of cellular and molecular biology . They decided to test 20 of the recently discovered receptor-activating antibodies on acute myeloid leukemia cells taken from human patients. One of the antibodies ended up having an incredible impact on the leukemia cells.

Most acute myeloid leukemia cells have the thrombopoietin (TPO) receptor, a receptor the winning antibody selectively and potently activated in marrow cells. When the antibody was applied to healthy marrow cells, the cells matured into blood-platelet-producing cells (megakaryocytes). When applied to the acute myeloid leukemia cells, though, the antibody caused them to mature into dendritic cells, which are key support cells in the body’s immune system.

This alone would have been a success — the researchers had effectively transformed cancerous cells into non-cancerous, helpful immune system cells. The team pushed further, though, and found that with longer exposures to the antibodies and other regulated conditions, the dendritic cells matured even more. The final product was a group of cells that very closely resembled natural killer (NK) cells. One of the body’s rapid immune defenses, NK cells are capable of rapidly attacking potentially dangerous pathogens and tumors even if they don’t contain the biomarkers normally identified by other immune cells.

“That antibody could have turned those acute myeloid leukemia cells into a lot of other cell types, but somehow we were lucky enough to get NK cells,” Dr. said in a press release.

These induced NK cells possessed a few unique characteristics, observed by the team through electron microscopy. The cells possessed extending tendrils that had made their way through the outer membranes of closeby leukemia cells — the kind of cells they would still be, had they not been exposed to the antibody. In lab tests, the NK cells betrayed their former brethren at an impressive pace: a “modest” number of NK cells took out about 15 percent of the surrounding leukemic cell population in only 24 hours.

An interesting detail noted by the researchers is the purely fratricidal nature of the NK cells. They attacked only related leukemia cells, while unrelated breast cancer cells did not die off in large numbers when put into contact with the NK cells. The team is still unclear on why exactly the NK cells behave this way, but hypothesize that other, yet-to-be-discovered antibodies could be the key to turning other cancerous cell types into NK cells.

Researcher has named this type of therapy “fratricidins,” and pointed out that they would have several advantages. The antibodies would be clinically useful with little to no modification, and the high specificity of the NK cells would reduce the likelihood of damage to surrounding healthy cells. This would make fratricidins a possible treatment with much more tolerable effects than traditional treatments like chemotherapy.

On top of that, every cancer cell in a population is potentially convertible, so in a successful therapy the cancer-cell population might not just be reduced, but eliminated entirely.

“It’s a totally new approach to cancer, and we’re working to test it in human patients as soon as possible,” he said. “We’re in discussions with pharmaceutical companies to take this straight into humans after the appropriate preclinical toxicity studies.”


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Have fish oil to burn those kilos around your belly

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.

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 Fish oil may burn fat faster than those fat-burning pills, leading to efficient weight loss in overweight or obese people in their 30s and 40s, Kyoto University researchers report.

Fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system and induces storage cells to metabolise fat.

Fat tissues do not all store fat. So called “white” cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply while “brown” cells metabolise fat to maintain a stable body temperature.

Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.

A third type of fat cell — “beige” cells — have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells.

Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age — and without these metabolising cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used.

“We knew from previous research that fish oil has tremendous health benefits, including the prevention of fat accumulation. We tested whether fish oil and an increase in beige cells could be related,” said senior author Teruo Kawada.

The team fed a group of mice fatty food, and other groups fatty food with fish oil additives.

The mice that ate food with fish oil, they found, gained 5-10 % less weight and 15-25 % less fat compared to those that did not consume the oil.

The team also found that beige cells formed from white fat cells when the sympathetic nervous system was activated, meaning that certain fat storage cells acquired the ability to metabolise.

“People have long said that food from Japan and the Mediterranean contribute to longevity, but why these cuisines are beneficial was up for debate. Now we have better insight into why that may be,” explained Kawada in a paper which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.

Fish oil may burn fat faster than those fat-burning pills, leading to efficient weight loss in overweight or obese people in their 30s and 40s, Kyoto University researchers report.
Fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system and induces storage cells to metabolise fat.

Fat tissues do not all store fat. So called “white” cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply while “brown” cells metabolise fat to maintain a stable body temperature.
Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.
A third type of fat cell — “beige” cells — have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells.
Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age — and without these metabolising cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used.
“We knew from previous research that fish oil has tremendous health benefits, including the prevention of fat accumulation. We tested whether fish oil and an increase in beige cells could be related,” said senior author Teruo Kawada.
The team fed a group of mice fatty food, and other groups fatty food with fish oil additives.
The mice that ate food with fish oil, they found, gained 5-10 % less weight and 15-25 % less fat compared to those that did not consume the oil.
The team also found that beige cells formed from white fat cells when the sympathetic nervous system was activated, meaning that certain fat storage cells acquired the ability to metabolise.
“People have long said that food from Japan and the Mediterranean contribute to longevity, but why these cuisines are beneficial was up for debate. Now we have better insight into why that may be,” explained Kawada in a paper which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/have-fish-oil-to-burn-those-kilos-around-your-belly/#sthash.r9aIubzi.dpuf

Fish oil may burn fat faster than those fat-burning pills, leading to efficient weight loss in overweight or obese people in their 30s and 40s, Kyoto University researchers report.
Fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system and induces storage cells to metabolise fat.

Fat tissues do not all store fat. So called “white” cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply while “brown” cells metabolise fat to maintain a stable body temperature.
Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.
A third type of fat cell — “beige” cells — have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells.
Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age — and without these metabolising cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used.
“We knew from previous research that fish oil has tremendous health benefits, including the prevention of fat accumulation. We tested whether fish oil and an increase in beige cells could be related,” said senior author Teruo Kawada.
The team fed a group of mice fatty food, and other groups fatty food with fish oil additives.
The mice that ate food with fish oil, they found, gained 5-10 % less weight and 15-25 % less fat compared to those that did not consume the oil.
The team also found that beige cells formed from white fat cells when the sympathetic nervous system was activated, meaning that certain fat storage cells acquired the ability to metabolise.
“People have long said that food from Japan and the Mediterranean contribute to longevity, but why these cuisines are beneficial was up for debate. Now we have better insight into why that may be,” explained Kawada in a paper which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/have-fish-oil-to-burn-those-kilos-around-your-belly/#sthash.r9aIubzi.dpuf

Fish oil may burn fat faster than those fat-burning pills, leading to efficient weight loss in overweight or obese people in their 30s and 40s, Kyoto University researchers report.
Fish oil activates receptors in the digestive tract, fires the sympathetic nervous system and induces storage cells to metabolise fat.

Fat tissues do not all store fat. So called “white” cells store fat in order to maintain energy supply while “brown” cells metabolise fat to maintain a stable body temperature.
Brown cells are abundant in babies but decrease in number with maturity into adulthood.
A third type of fat cell — “beige” cells — have recently been found in humans and mice, and have shown to function much like brown cells.
Beige cells also reduce in number as people approach middle age — and without these metabolising cells, fat continues accumulating for decades without ever being used.
“We knew from previous research that fish oil has tremendous health benefits, including the prevention of fat accumulation. We tested whether fish oil and an increase in beige cells could be related,” said senior author Teruo Kawada.
The team fed a group of mice fatty food, and other groups fatty food with fish oil additives.
The mice that ate food with fish oil, they found, gained 5-10 % less weight and 15-25 % less fat compared to those that did not consume the oil.
The team also found that beige cells formed from white fat cells when the sympathetic nervous system was activated, meaning that certain fat storage cells acquired the ability to metabolise.
“People have long said that food from Japan and the Mediterranean contribute to longevity, but why these cuisines are beneficial was up for debate. Now we have better insight into why that may be,” explained Kawada in a paper which appeared in the journal Scientific Reports.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/health/have-fish-oil-to-burn-those-kilos-around-your-belly/#sthash.r9aIubzi.dpuf

Tiny molecule may help battle depression

A tiny molecule may provide a marker for depression and help detect individuals who are likely to respond to antidepressant treatment, a new study has found.

Researchers at McGill University and the Douglas Institute in Canada discovered that levels of a small molecule, called miR-1202, found only in humans and in other primates are lower in the brains of depressed individuals.

Depression is a common cause of disability, and while viable medications exist to treat it, finding the right medication for individual patients often amounts to trial and error for the physician.

"Using samples from the Douglas Bell-Canada Brain Bank, we examined brain tissues from individuals who were depressed and compared them with brain tissues from psychiatrically healthy individuals," said Dr Gustavo Turecki, a psychiatrist at the Douglas and professor in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry at McGill.

"We identified this molecule, a microRNA known as miR-1202, only found in humans and primates and discovered that it regulates an important receptor of the neurotransmitter glutamate," said Turecki.

Turecki and colleagues conducted a number of experiments that showed that antidepressants change the levels of this microRNA.

"In our clinical trials with living depressed individuals treated with citalopram, a commonly prescribed antidepressant, we found lower levels in depressed individuals compared to the non-depressed individuals before treatment," said Turecki.

"Clearly, microRNA miR-1202 increased as the treatment worked and individuals no longer felt depressed," Turecki said.

"Although antidepressants are clearly effective, there is variability in how individuals respond to antidepressant treatment," said Turecki.

"We found that miR-1202 is different in individuals with depression and particularly, among those patients who eventually will respond to antidepressant treatment," he said.

The study was published in the journal Nature Medicine.

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.

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Why diabetic women are likelier to develop kidney failure than men?

A new study has linked a genetic variant on chromosome 2 with kidney failure in diabetic women but not in men.

A researcher had designed a study to detect genetic variants that might predispose diabetic women to kidney failure and identified a genetic variant on chromosome 2 that was linked with kidney failure in women with type 1 diabetes but not in men.

Diabetic women with the risk variant had a nearly twofold increased risk of developing kidney failure compared with diabetic women who did not have the risk variant.

The genetic variant is located close to a gene for a factor that interacts with the estrogen receptor and also helps regulate kidney function. It will be interesting to see if this factor plays a role in the gender-specific protection against kidney failure seen in this study.

ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

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Cancer cure comes closer to reality

A company  that has been able to develop a way to harness the power of the immune system’s natural-born killer cells: the T-cells of the blood that kill invading pathogens, like viruses and bacteria.

A chief scientific officer who began to study T-cells 20 years ago, said that immuno-therapy is radically different.

He said that his method doesn't do away with other cancer treatments by any means, and only adds something to the arsenal, though it may have one unique feature – it could have the ability to actually cure cancer.

Today almost all the cancer treatments are burdened with the problem of sparing the healthy tissue from irreparable harm while ensuring that every cancer cell is killed, deactivated or removed.

According to the researcher, many companies have tried developing cancer cures based on antibodies, but have had limited success.

He said that a part of the problem was that antibodies are not designed to recognise cells and his company built a therapy around the second arm of the immune system, called cellular immunity, where T-cells seek out and destroy invading pathogens.

They have devised a way to design small protein molecules, which is called ImmTACs, which act as double-ended glue. At one end ImmTACs stick to cancer cells, strongly and very specifically, and leave healthy cells untouched and at the other end they stick to T-cells.

The researcher said that they use scaffold of the T-cell receptor to make something that is very good at recognising cancer even if it doesn't exist naturally.

He asserted that although T-cells are not keen to recognise cancer, they force them to do so.

ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

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I've not given details about designs, but those interested are free to mail me for the same.