Antibiotic use aids MRSA spread in hospital and infection control measures do little to prevent it, says hospital study

ScienceDaily (Sep. 20, 2012) — The use of a commonly prescribed antibiotic is a major contributor to the spread of infection in hospitals by the 'superbug' MRSA, according to new research. The study also found that increasing measures to prevent infection -- such as improved hygiene and hand washing -- appeared to have only a small effect on reducing MRSA infection rates during the period studied.

MRSA -- methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus -- is a bacteria that causes hospital-acquired infection and is resistant to all of the penicillin-type antibiotics frequently used in hospitals to prevent and treat infection. It can cause serious infections of the skin, blood, lungs and bones.

The researchers -- led by St George's, University of London -- tracked MRSA infection over 10 years from 1999 to 2009 at St George's Hospital, looking at how it has adapted to survive in a hospital environment and at factors that affected its prevalence. They found that a significant drop in MRSA rates coincided with a reduction in hospital prescriptions of ciprofloxacin, the most commonly prescribed antibiotic of the fluoroquinolone family.

Over a short period of the study, ciprofloxacin prescriptions fell from 70-100 daily doses for every thousand occupied beds to about 30 doses. In the same period, the number of patients identified by the laboratory to be infected with MRSA fell by half, from an average of about 120 a month to about 60. Following this, over the last two years of the study both the drug prescription level and MRSA rates remained at these reduced levels. Symptoms of MRSA infection can range from very mild to severe, but it is not known how many of the cases examined in the study were serious.

The study -- published in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy -- looked at whether other factors such as improved infection control measures may have contributed to this decrease in infection. However, during a four-year period when more stringent infection control policies were introduced -- including improved cleaning and hand washing, and screening patients for MRSA on arrival at hospital -- the only major reduction in MRSA infection rates coincided with the reduction in ciprofloxacin prescriptions.

Lead author Dr Jodi Lindsay, a reader in microbial pathogenesis at St George's, University of London, said: "Surprisingly, it wasn't hygiene and hand washing that were the main factors responsible for the decrease in MRSA in the hospital. Rather, it seemed to be a change in the use of a particular group of antibiotics. Hand washing and infection control are important, but they were not enough to cause the decrease in MRSA we saw."

Dr Lindsay said the study suggested that MRSA relies on ciprofloxacin -- and fluoroquinolones in general -- to thrive in hospitals, as well as penicillin-type drugs, which was already assumed. The fluoroquinolone group of antibiotics have a similar enough mechanism of action to assume that the effect would be the same for them all.

She added that the findings suggest the most effective way to control MRSA and other hospital-based superbugs is to continue finding alternative ways to use antibiotics, rather than simply focusing on infection control techniques.

As well as identifying factors that influenced prevalence, the researchers identified the strain of MRSA that has become dominant. This strain -- CC22 -- has thrived by developing and maintaining multi-drug resistance, and becoming more fit to survive on hospital surfaces than other strains.

Dr Tim Planche, consultant microbiologist at St George's Healthcare NHS Trust and one of the co-authors of the study, said: "The Trust currently has infection rates among the lowest in London, having successfully driven acquisitions down over the past five or six years using a combination of both tough hygiene regimes and careful selective use of antibiotics. These findings, however, provide valuable insight and certainly warrant further investigation, which could lead to the development of even more effective infection control strategies in future."

Dr Lindsay said that studying the dynamic of how MRSA bacteria strains continue to evolve in hospitals in response to changing practice and interventions, such as infection control and antibiotic prescribing, will be essential to determine which interventions work, which are cost effective, and which are likely to have the best long-term outcomes.

She added: "But it seems that we now have an excellent opportunity to control superbugs in hospitals by re-examining how we prescribe antibiotics and ensuring we're using them in the most effective way possible."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of St George's London.

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Journal Reference:

1. G. M. Knight, E. L. Budd, L. Whitney, A. Thornley, H. Al-Ghusein, T. Planche, J. A. Lindsay. Shift in dominant hospital-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (HA-MRSA) clones over time. Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2012; 67 (10): 2514 DOI: 10.1093/jac/dks245

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20 Sep, 2012

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Sudden cardiac death is associated with a thin placenta at birth, researchers find

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — Researchers studying the origins of sudden cardiac death have found that in both men and women a thin placenta at birth was associated with sudden cardiac death. A thin placenta may result in a reduced flow of nutrients from the mother to the fetus. The authors suggest that sudden cardiac death may be initiated by impaired development of the autonomic nervous system in the womb, as a result of fetal malnutrition.

The new study, published today in the International Journal of Epidemiology, also found that sudden death was associated independently with poor educational attainment. However, sudden cardiac death was not associated with maternal body size, fetal size at birth, or the length of gestation.

Professor David Barker and colleagues examined sudden death within the Helsinki Birth Cohort, which consists of 6075 men and 6370 women who were born in the city during 1934-1944 and attended child welfare clinics. Detailed information was recorded on the birth records of the group including the placental weight and the length and breadth of the placental surface as well as the child's weight, head circumference, and length.

Professor Barker, of the University of Southampton, comments that 'There is currently a growing body of research that shows that coronary heart disease is associated with alterations in prenatal growth and this has led to the hypothesis that coronary heart disease originates in the womb as a consequence of fetal malnutrition. In research recently carried out by myself and colleagues, we found that coronary heart disease among men was associated with altered shape and size of the placenta.'

'Our new research published today continues the investigation of the relationship between cardiac death and development within the womb. Our new findings suggest that sudden death may be initiated by the impaired development of the autonomic nervous system in the womb, due to placental thinness. A thin placenta may result in fetal malnutrition, due to a shallow invasion of the spiral arteries in the placenta which provide nutrients and blood to the baby. There is evidence that people who experience fetal malnutrition and who are small at birth have an increased sympopathoadrenal response to acute stress, which is known to be linked to death from cardiac arrest.'

Among women, sudden death was associated with a large placental area in comparison to the baby's weight. Placenta expansion in sheep is well documented and the findings in this study suggest that the placenta attempted to compensate for a thin surface by expanding the area of the surface. Professor Barker notes that 'there is evidence that compensatory placental expansion occurs in human and that this expansion may be beneficial in some circumstances. However, if the compensation is inadequate and the fetus continues to be under nourished then the need to share its nutrients with an enlarged placenta may become a metabolic burden and the quality of fetal development may be harmed. We believe that the female foetuses in our study compensated for placental thinness by expanding the placental surface.

Professor Barker and his team also found that sudden cardiac death was strongly associated with low socio-economic status and with low education attainment. He suggests that 'poor educational results may be due to a poor cognitive ability or other issues such as the inability to concentrate or maintain attention. We suggest that the association we have found between sudden death and poor educational attainment results from impaired prenatal development of the autonomic nervous system. These findings build upon a body of research that has consistently reported associations between sudden cardiac death and low socio-economic status.'

In the study, a total of one hundred and eighty-seven men (2.7%) and forty seven women (0.7%) suffered from sudden unexplained cardiac death outside of the hospital. The rate of sudden cardiac death among men and women increased with placental thinness, with a hazard ratio of 1.47. The authors restricted their analysis to deaths that occurred outside of hospital and were certified as coronary heart disease, with men and women who had never been admitted to hospital with coronary heart disease.

Professor Barker and his team do acknowledge that there are some limitations to the study. The placental measurements were made during routing obstetric practice 70 years ago and the quality of these measurements was not routinely checked and neither were other clinical measurements, such as blood pressure. The mean placental weight in this study was also more than the median recorded in a recent series of deliveries in Europe.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Oxford University Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Journal Reference:

1. David JP Barker, Gail Larsen, Clive Osmond, Kent L Thornburg, Eero Kajantie, and Johan G Eriksson. The placental origins of sudden cardiac death. International Journal of Epidemiology, 2012; DOI: 10.1093/ije/dys116

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20 Sep, 2012

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Obese children have less sensitive taste-buds than those of normal weight

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — Obese kids have less sensitive taste-buds than kids of normal weight, indicates research published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.

This blunted ability to distinguish all five tastes of bitter, sweet, salty, sour, and umami (savoury) may prompt them to eat larger quantities of food in a bid to register the same taste sensation, suggest the authors.

They base their findings on 94 normal weight and 99 obese children aged between 6 and 18, who were in good health and not taking any medications known to affect taste and smell.

The taste sensitivity of every child was tested using 22 "taste strips" placed on the tongue, to include each of the five taste sensations, at four different levels of intensity, plus two blank strips.

Each child was asked to refrain from eating or drinking anything other than water and not to chew gum for at least an hour before they took the two tests, which involved identifying the different tastes and their intensity.

The sum of all five taste sensations at the four different intensities allowed for a maximum score of 20, with scores ranging from two to 19.

Girls and older children were better at picking out the right tastes.

Overall, the children were best able to differentiate between sweet and salty, but found it hardest to distinguish between salty and sour, and between salty and umami.

And obese children found it significantly more difficult to identify the different taste sensations, scoring an average of 12.6 compared with an average of just over 14 clocked up by children of normal weight.

Obese children were significantly less likely to identify the individual taste sensations correctly, particularly salty, umami, and bitter.

And while both obese and normal weight children correctly identified all the differing levels of sweetness, obese kids rated three out of the four intensity levels lower than kids of normal weight.

Similarly, children of normal weight were better able to distinguish the different taste sensations, the older they were, but this trend was not seen among the obese children.

Exactly why people have differing taste perceptions is unclear, but genes, hormones, acculturation and exposure to different tastes early in life are all thought to play a part, say the authors.

But previous research indicates that heightened sensitivity to different taste sensations may help to reduce the amount of food eaten as less is required to get the same "taste hit."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal.

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Journal Reference:

1. Johanna Overberg, Thomas Hummel, Heiko Krude, Susanna Wiegand. Differences in taste sensitivity between obese and non-obese children and adolescents. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 2012; DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2011-301189

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

20 Sep, 2012

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Tissue around tumor holds key to fighting triple negative breast cancer

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — A natural substance found in the surrounding tissue of a tumor may be a promising weapon to stop triple negative breast cancer from metastasizing.

A preclinical study published in PLOS ONE September 19 by Thomas Jefferson University researchers found that decorin, a well-studied protein known to help halt tumor growth, induces a series of tumor suppressor genes in the surrounding tissue in triple negative breast cancer tumors to help stop metastasis.

"These findings provide a new paradigm for decorin, with great implications for curbing tumor growth by inducing new tumor suppressor genes within the tumor microenvironment, and for the discovery of novel gene signatures that could eventually help clinical assessment and prognosis," said senior author Renato V. Iozzo, M.D., Professor of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, at Thomas Jefferson University.

Triple negative breast cancer is the most deadly of breast cancers, with fast-growing tumors, that disproportionately affect younger and African-American women. Today, no such marker is applied in care of triple negative breast cancer, and as a result, patients are all treated the same.

"Originally, we thought that decorin was affecting the tumor, but, surprisingly, decorin affects the so-called tumor microenvironment, where malignant cells grow and invade, igniting genes to stop such growth," said Dr. Iozzo, who is also a member of Jefferson's Kimmel Cancer Center. "Absence of decorin in the microenvironment could explain metastasis in some patients, where higher levels of the protein may keep cancer from spreading."

In the study, 357 genes were found to be induced by the increased presence of decorin, but more interestingly, the researchers discovered that three of these genes, which were previously unlinked to triple negative breast cancer, were tumor suppressor genes affecting the tumor microenvironment, including Bmp2K, Zc3hav1, and PEG3.

Decorin is a naturally occurring substance in the connective tissue where, among other roles, it helps regulate cell growth by interacting with growth factors and collagen. A decade ago, Dr. Iozzo and his team discovered that decorin, a cell protein, and specifically, a proteoglycan, is increased in the matrix surrounding tumor cells. They also discovered that decorin causes production of a protein, p21, which also can arrest cell growth. However, decorin's role in breast cancer and the mechanism behind its anti-tumor properties remained elusive.

For this study, researchers aimed to investigate the impact of decorin in triple negative breast cancer tumors using human cell lines in mice, as well analyze gene expression activity in the tumor microenvironment.

Tumors treated with decorin were found to have a decreased volume of up to 50 percent after 23 days. Using a sophisticated microarray technique, the researchers then analyzed the mouse tumor microenvironment, finding increased expression of 357 genes, three of which are the tumor suppressor genes of interest.

These results demonstrate a novel role for decorin in reduction or prevention of tumor metastases that could eventually lead to improved therapeutics for metastatic breast cancer.

"Here, we have a molecule that can turn a tumor microenvironment from a bad neighborhood to a clean neighborhood by inducing genes in that neighborhood to stop growth and prevent the tumor from metastasizing," said Dr. Iozzo.

This work was in part supported by the National Institutes of Health grants RO1CA39481, RO1CA47282 and RO1CA120975.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Thomas Jefferson University, via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Simone Buraschi, Thomas Neill, Rick T. Owens, Leonardo A. Iniguez, George Purkins, Rajanikanth Vadigepalli, Barry Evans, Liliana Schaefer, Stephen C. Peiper, Zi-Xuan Wang, Renato V. Iozzo. Decorin Protein Core Affects the Global Gene Expression Profile of the Tumor Microenvironment in a Triple-Negative Orthotopic Breast Carcinoma Xenograft Model. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (9): e45559 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045559

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

20 Sep, 2012

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Emotional neglect in children linked to increased stroke risk later in life

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — The results from a new study by neurological researchers from the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center at Rush University Medical Center suggest that people who were emotionally neglected as children may have a higher risk of stroke in later adulthood.

"Studies have shown that children who were neglected emotionally in childhood are at an increased risk of a slew of psychiatric disorders. However, our study is one of few that looked at an association between emotional neglect and stroke," said study author Robert S. Wilson, PhD, a neuropsychologist at Rush.

The findings are published in the September 19, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

For the study, 1,040 participants in the Memory and Aging Project who did not have dementia and were 55 years of age or older took a survey measuring physical and emotional abuse before the age of 18. The retrospective survey questions focused on whether the participant felt loved by their parents or caregiver when they were younger, were made to feel afraid or intimidated and whether they were punished with a belt or other object. Questions about parental divorce and the family's financial needs were also included.

Over a period of three and a half years, 257 people in the study died, of which 192 had a brain autopsy to look for signs of stroke. Forty of the participants had evidence of a stroke based on their medical history or an examination. A total of 89 people had signs of a stroke based on the autopsy results.

The study found that the risk of stroke was nearly three times higher in those people who reported a moderately high level of childhood emotional neglect than those who reported a moderately low level. The results stayed the same after considering factors such as diabetes, physical activity, smoking, anxiety and heart problems.

"Interestingly, the autopsy showed emotional neglect was associated with the presence of cerebral infarctions," said Dr. David A. Bennett, director of the Rush Alzheimer's Disease Center and co-author of the study. "The results add to a growing body of evidence suggesting that early life factors such as traumatic childhood experiences influence the development of physical illness and common chronic conditions of old age."

Wilson noted that a limitation of the study is that neglect was reported from memory many years after occurrence, so participants may not have remembered events accurately.

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Illinois Department of Public Health.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Rush University Medical Center, via Newswise.

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1. Robert S. Wilson, Patricia A. Boyle, Steven R. Levine, Lei Yu, Sophia E. Anagnos, Aron S. Buchman, Julie A. Schneider, and David A. Bennett. Emotional neglect in childhood and cerebral infarction in older age. Neurology, September 19, 2012 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31826e25bd

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20 Sep, 2012

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Test can help make diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — A new guideline released by the American Academy of Neurology may help doctors in making the diagnosis of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. The guideline is published in the September 19, 2012, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare, always fatal brain disorder that involves quickly progressing dementia. New cases appear in about one person per million each year worldwide and confirming the diagnosis is challenging. People with the disease can have a wide range of symptoms. Many other conditions can cause similar symptoms, and with some of these conditions the dementia can be treated.

The guideline focused only on the diagnosis of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

While several tests are available to help diagnose sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a brain biopsy is the most accurate test that can be performed on a person living with the disease. Brain biopsy is potentially dangerous.

The guideline examined the diagnostic accuracy of testing for a protein called 14-3-3 in the spinal fluid. The guideline authors reviewed all of the available evidence on the test, which included samples of 1,849 people with suspected sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease from nine studies.

They found that in cases where doctors strongly suspect Creutzfeldt-Jakob to be the cause of the dementia, the test can be helpful in reducing the uncertainty of the diagnosis. However, the test is not accurate enough to diagnose the disease with certainty or to rule it out completely. The test has a sensitivity of about 92 percent and a specificity of about 80 percent. Sensitivity is the percentage of patients with the disease who have a positive test result, and specificity is the percentage of patients who do not have the disease and who are correctly identified as having a negative test result.

The guideline determined that the 14-3-3 protein test can be useful when the probability of the person having Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is between 20 percent and 90 percent.

"This means that if the physician considers the likelihood of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease to be extremely low or extremely high, then testing for 14-3-3 protein would not be useful regardless of the result," said guideline author Taim Muayqil, MBBS, FRCPC, of King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology.

Muayqil noted that only doctors experienced in diagnosing dementia should determine whether the 14-3-3 protein test is needed and how results should be interpreted.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Academy of Neurology (AAN), via Newswise.

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Journal Reference:

1. Taim Muayqil, Gary Gronseth, and Richard Camicioli. Evidence-based guideline: Diagnostic accuracy of CSF 14-3-3 protein in sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: Report of the Guideline Development Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology. Neurology, 2012 DOI: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e31826d5fc3

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

20 Sep, 2012

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Blind people develop accurate mental map by playing 'video' game

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — Researchers have developed a new "video" game for blind people that can help them learn about a new space using only audio cues, as reported Sept. 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

The system, developed by a team led by Lotfi Merabet of Harvard Medical School and Jaime Sánchez of the University of Chile, is called the Audiobased Environment Simulator and uses only audio-based cues to allow blind users to learn about the layout of a previously unfamiliar building.

After playing the game, participants were better able to navigate a real-world version of the space explored in the virtual reality environment, confirming that the spatial information learned in the game was accurate and transferrable.

"Learning through such interactive games represents an innovative and motivating way to improve crucial skills that allow blind individuals to remain functionally independent," says Merabet.

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1. Lotfi B. Merabet, Erin C. Connors, Mark A. Halko, Jaime Sánchez. Teaching the Blind to Find Their Way by Playing Video Games. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (9): e44958 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044958

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20 Sep, 2012

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People change moral position without even realizing it

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — Shortly after expressing a moral view about a difficult topic, people may easily endorse the opposite view and remain blind to the psychological mismatch, according to research published Sept. 19 in the open access journal PLOS ONE.

In the study, led by Lars Hall of Lund University, Sweden, participants were presented with a survey about moral issues, including foundational principles and current hot topics with moral implications. To complete the survey they had to flip over the first page of questions, which was displayed on a clipboard, and this is where the researchers implemented a design usually used in performance magic: the back of the clipboard had a patch of glue that caught the top layer of the questions, so when the page was flipped back over, an opposite version of the original questions was revealed but the answers remained unchanged. In other words, the participants' responses were opposite to their originally declared positions (For a video illustration of the experiment, see http://www.lucs.lu.se/cbq/).

The researchers then discussed the participants' answers with them, and found that many participants supported their reported answers, even though the responses were opposite to what the individual had originally intended to express. The authors write that "participants often constructed coherent and unequivocal arguments supporting the opposite of their original position," suggesting "a dramatic potential for flexibility in our moral attitudes."

Commenting on their results, Lars Hall says, "It could have significant impact on research that uses self-reported questionnaires. Either we would have to conclude that many participants hold no real attitudes about the topics we investigate, or that standard survey scales fail to capture the complexity of the attitudes people actually hold."

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1. Lars Hall, Petter Johansson, Thomas Strandberg. Lifting the Veil of Morality: Choice Blindness and Attitude Reversals on a Self-Transforming Survey. PLoS ONE, 2012; 7 (9): e45457 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0045457

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20 Sep, 2012

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Misinformation: Why it sticks and how to fix it

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — Childhood vaccines do not cause autism. Barack Obama was born in the United States. Global warming is confirmed by science. And yet, many people believe claims to the contrary.

Why does that kind of misinformation stick? A new report published in Psychological Science in the Public Interest, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, explores this phenomenon. Psychological scientist Stephan Lewandowsky of the University of Western Australia and colleagues highlight the cognitive factors that make certain pieces of misinformation so "sticky" and identify some techniques that may be effective in debunking or counteracting erroneous beliefs.

The main reason that misinformation is sticky, according to the researchers, is that rejecting information actually requires cognitive effort. Weighing the plausibility and the source of a message is cognitively more difficult than simply accepting that the message is true -- it requires additional motivational and cognitive resources. If the topic isn't very important to you or you have other things on your mind, misinformation is more likely to take hold.

And when we do take the time to thoughtfully evaluate incoming information, there are only a few features that we are likely to pay attention to: Does the information fit with other things I believe in? Does it make a coherent story with what I already know? Does it come from a credible source? Do others believe it?

Misinformation is especially sticky when it conforms to our preexisting political, religious, or social point of view. Because of this, ideology and personal worldviews can be especially difficult obstacles to overcome.

Even worse, efforts to retract misinformation often backfire, paradoxically amplifying the effect of the erroneous belief.

"This persistence of misinformation has fairly alarming implications in a democracy because people may base decisions on information that, at some level, they know to be false," says Lewandowsky.

"At an individual level, misinformation about health issues -- for example, unwarranted fears regarding vaccinations or unwarranted trust in alternative medicine -- can do a lot of damage. At a societal level, persistent misinformation about political issues (e.g., Obama's health care reform) can create considerable harm. On a global scale, misinformation about climate change is currently delaying mitigative action."

Though misinformation may be difficult to correct, all is not lost. According to Lewandowsky, "psychological science has the potential to counteract all those harms by educating people and communicators about the power of misinformation and how to meet it."

In their report, Lewandowsky and colleagues offer some strategies for setting the record straight.

• Provide people with a narrative that replaces the gap left by false information
• Focus on the facts you want to highlight, rather than the myths
• Make sure that the information you want people to take away is simple and brief
• Consider your audience and the beliefs they are likely to hold
• Strengthen your message through repetition

Research has shown that attempts at "debiasing" can be effective in the real world when based on these evidence-based strategies.

The report, "Misinformation and its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing," is published in the September issue of Psychological Science in the Public Interest and is written by Stephan Lewandowsky and Ullrich Ecker of the University of Western Australia, Colleen Seifert and Norbert Schwarz of the University of Michigan, and John Cook of the University of Queensland and the University of Western Australia.

The report also features a commentary written by Edward Maibach of George Mason University.

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Journal Reference:

1. S. Lewandowsky, U. K. H. Ecker, C. M. Seifert, N. Schwarz, J. Cook. Misinformation and Its Correction: Continued Influence and Successful Debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 2012; 13 (3): 106 DOI: 10.1177/1529100612451018

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20 Sep, 2012

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Promise of cell therapy for bowel disease

ScienceDaily (Sep. 19, 2012) — New research shows that a special population of stem cells found in cord blood has the innate ability to migrate to the intestine and contribute to the cell population there, suggesting the cells' potential to treat inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

"These cells are involved in the formation of blood vessels and may prove to be a tool for improving the vessel abnormalities found in IBD," said lead author Graca Almeida-Porada, M.D., Ph.D., a professor at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center's Institute for Regenerative Medicine. The research is published in the current print issue of the journal Hepatology.

Up to 1 million Americans have IBD, which is characterized by frequent diarrhea and abdominal pain. IBD actually refers to two conditions -- ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease -- in which the intestines become red and swollen and develop ulcers. With IBD, blood vessels in the intestine leak and contribute to inflammation.

While there is currently no cure for IBD, there are drug therapies aimed at reducing inflammation and preventing the immune response. However, these therapies aren't always effective. The long-term aim of the research is to develop an injectable cell therapy to induce tissue recovery.

The work, performed while Almeida-Porada was at the University of Nevada, also involved colleagues from Indiana University School of Medicine. The researchers studied a special population of cells, known as endothelial colony-forming cells, found in cord blood, bone marrow and circulating blood. The finding in 1997 that the cells can contribute to blood vessel formation in adults, not just embryos, initiated the notion of using them for therapy. Studies in humans have validated the ability of these cells to improve reduced blood flow to the limbs and to treat heart diseases.

However, there have been few studies to explore the inherent biologic ability of these cells to home to different organs and contribute to tissue-specific cell populations. Evaluating their potential to migrate to the intestine was an obvious choice, said Almeida-Porada, because dysfunctional blood vessels are a hallmark of IBD. Not only are circulating levels of vessel-forming cells reduced in patients with IBD, but a key factor in IBD progression is the development of abnormal or immature blood vessels, which leads to chronic inflammation.

The cells were injected into fetal sheep at 59 to 65 days gestation. About 11 weeks later, intestinal tissue was analyzed to detect the presence of the human cells. The researchers found that the human cells had migrated to the intestine and contributed significantly to the cell population there.

"This study shows that the cells can migrate to and survive in a healthy intestine and have the potential to support vascular health," said Almeida-Porada. "Our next step will be to determine whether the cells can survive in the 'war' environment of an inflamed intestine."

The researchers also evaluated the ability of the cells to home to the liver. Smaller numbers of cells reached the liver than the intestine, suggesting that new strategies would be needed to enhance the therapeutic potential for this organ.

The research was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grants HL097623 and HL073737.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joshua A. Wood, Evan Colletti, Laura E. Mead, David Ingram, Christopher D. Porada, Esmail D. Zanjani, Mervin C. Yoder, Graça Almeida-Porada. Distinct contribution of human cord blood-derived endothelial colony forming cells to liver and gut in a fetal sheep model. Hepatology, 2012; 56 (3): 1086 DOI: 10.1002/hep.25753

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

20 Sep, 2012

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Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_health/~3/tFXiL2WUFPg/120919190110.htm
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