DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/z9fnc8/physiology_of_the) has announced the addition of Elsevier Science and Technology's new report "Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Two Volume Set. Edition No. 5" to their offering.

The gastrointestinal system is responsible for the breakdown and absorption of various foods and liquids needed to sustain life. Other diseases and disorders treated by clinicians in this area include: food allergies, constipation, chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, gallstones, gastritis, GERD, hemorrhoids, IBS, lactose intolerance, pancreatic, appendicitis, celiac disease, Crohn's disease, peptic ulcer, stomach ulcer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer and liver transplants. Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract, 5/e covers the study of the mechanical, physical, and biochemical functions of the GI Tract while linking the clinical disease or disorder, bridging the gap between clinical and laboratory medicine.

The new edition is a highly referenced and useful resource for gastroenterologists, physiologists, internists, professional researchers, and instructors teaching courses for clinical and research students.

Key Topics Covered:

VOLUME I

Section I: Basic Cell Physiology, Genetics, and Growth of the GI Tract Section II: Neurogastroenterology Section III: Host Defense Mechanisms

VOLUME II

Section IV: Physiology of Secretion Section V: Digestion and Absorption Section VI: Consequences of Disregulated Physiology

Authors

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Research and Markets: Physiology of the Gastrointestinal Tract, Two Volume Set. Edition No. 5

Public release date: 22-Aug-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Mads Rosenkilde madsrl@sund.ku.dk 45-26-17-58-47 University of Copenhagen

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen have shown that 30 minutes of daily training provide an equally effective loss of weight and body mass as 60 minutes. Their results have just been published in the American Journal of Physiology.

Forty percent of Danish men are moderately overweight. For thirteen weeks, a research team at the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences followed 60 heavy but healthy Danish men in their efforts to get into better shape. Half of the men were set to exercise for an hour a day, wearing a heart-rate monitor and calorie counter, while the second group only had to sweat for 30 minutes. Research results show that 30 minutes of exercise hard enough to produce a sweat is enough to turn the tide on an unhealthy body mass index:

On average, the men who exercised 30 minutes a day lost 3.6 kilo in three months, while those who exercised for a whole hour only lost 2.7 kg. The reduction in body mass was about 4 kg for both groups, reports Mads Rosenkilde, PhD student, Department of Biomedical Sciences. 30 minutes of exercise training provide an extra bonus:

Participants exercising 30 minutes per day burned more calories than they should relative to the training program we set for them. In fact we can see that exercising for a whole hour instead of a half does not provide any additional loss in either body weight or fat. The men who exercised the most lost too little relative to the energy they burned by running, biking or rowing. 30 minutes of concentrated exercise give equally good results on the scale, explains Mads Rosenkilde.

Motivation to exercise

Mads Rosenkilde postulates that some of the explanation for the surprising results is that 30 minutes of exercise is so doable that participants in the study had the desire and energy for even more physical activity after their daily exercise session. In addition, the study group that spent 60 minutes on the treadmill probably ate more, and therefore lost slightly less weight than anticipated.

The participants in our study trained every day for three months. All training sessions were planned to produce a light sweat, but participants were expected to increase the intensity and give it gas three times a week, explains Mads Rosenkilde. He is also surprised at the research results, and the goal now is to study the effects of other types of exercise:

Another interesting scenario is to study exercise as a form of transport. Training is fantastic for your physical and mental health. The problem is that it takes time. If we can get people to exercise along the way to work, for example we will have won half the battle, says Mads Rosenkilde.

Continued here:
30 minutes of daily exercise does the trick

Wyss Institute researchers and a multidisciplinary team of collaborators seek to build and link 10 human organs-on-chips to mimic whole body physiology. The system will incorporate the Institute's Human Lung-on-a-Chip (top) and Human Gut-on-a-Chip (bottom).

The Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University today announced that it has entered into a Cooperative Agreement worth up to $37 million with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop an automated instrument that integrates 10 human organs-on-chips to study complex human physiology outside the body. This effort builds on the Institute's past breakthroughs in which Institute researchers engineered microchips that recapitulate the microarchitecture and functions of living organs, such as the lung, heart, and intestine. Each individual organ-on-chip is composed of a clear flexible polymer -- about the size of a computer memory stick -- that contains hollow microfluidic channels lined by living human cells. Because the microdevices are translucent, they provide a window into the inner-workings of human organs without having to invade a living body.

With this new DARPA funding, Institute researchers and a multidisciplinary team of collaborators seek to build 10 different human organs-on-chips, to link them together to more closely mimic whole body physiology, and to engineer an automated instrument that will control fluid flow and cell viability while permitting real-time analysis of complex biochemical functions. As an accurate alternative to traditional animal testing models that often fail to predict human responses, this instrumented "human-on-a-chip" will be used to rapidly assess responses to new drug candidates, providing critical information on their safety and efficacy.

Several U.S. agencies are working together to help safeguard Americans from deliberate chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threats, as well as from emerging infectious diseases, by drastically accelerating the drug development process. As an example, DARPA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are actively collaborating to develop cutting edge technologies to predict drug safety. The Wyss project was selected under the DARPA Defense Sciences Office (DSO) Microphysiological Systems Program and will be administered through a Cooperative Agreement by the Army Research Office (ARO) and DARPA.

This unique platform could help ensure that safe and effective therapeutics are identified sooner, and ineffective or toxic ones are rejected early in the development process. As a result, the quality and quantity of new drugs moving successfully through the pipeline and into the clinic may be increased, regulatory decision-making could be better informed, and patient outcomes could be improved.

Jesse Goodman, FDA Chief Scientist and Deputy Commissioner for Science and Public Health, commented that the automated human-on-chip instrument being developed "has the potential to be a better model for determining human adverse responses. FDA looks forward to working with the Wyss Institute in its development of this model that may ultimately be used in therapeutic development."

Provided by Harvard University

Original post:
Scientists integrating multiple organ-on-chip systems to mimic the whole human body

Editor's Choice Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry Article Date: 09 Aug 2012 - 14:00 PDT

Current ratings for: What Is Physiology?

The word "physiology" comes from the Ancient Greek physis, which means "nature, origin", and logia, which means "study of".

Physiologists are forever attempting to find the answers to key questions in single cell functions, how human populations interact, our environment on earth; in other words, an extremely wide range of subjects.

Physiologists say that physiology is a fundamental science for understanding about "life", how to go about treating diseases and coping with the stresses our bodies are exposed to in different environments. Pathophysiology seeks to understand the abnormalities that occur in human and animal diseases. Physiologists work closely with other scientists and health care professionals in seeking out new methods for treating those diseases (translational research).

Physiology and anatomy are very closely related disciplines; they are intrinsically linked. Medical students tend to study the two disciplines in tandem.

According to Medilexicon's medical dictionary, Physiology is:

Some say that Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), who focused on the relationship between structure and function, was the real pioneer of physiology.

Galen (Claudius Galenus, circa 129-200/216), a prominent Greek physician in Ancient Rome, dissected animals and became by contemporary standards an expert anatomist and physiologist. He said that monkeys that walked on two legs, like we do, would most probably provide researchers with knowledge that could be applied to humans. Galen is known as the "founder of experimental physiology".

Claude Bernard (1813-1878), a French physiologist, made further discoveries which eventually led to his concept of milieu intrieur (the environment within), in which he refers to the extra-cellular fluid environment which protects tissues and organs of multicellular living organisms. The concept was later investigated further by Walter Cannon (1871-1945), an American physiologist, who named it "homeostasis".

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What Is Physiology?

Article is published in the Journal of Applied Physiology

Newswise Bethesda, Md. (Aug. 8, 2012)Adolescence is an important time not only for growing but for acquiring healthy habits that will last a lifetime, such as choosing foods rich in vitamins and minerals, and adopting a regular exercise regimen. Unfortunately, several studies have shown that adolescents intake of important nutrients, as well as their performance on standard physical fitness tests, has fallen in recent years. Because nutrition and fitness are intertwinedfor example, iron forms part of hemoglobin, which carries oxygen to muscles, and antioxidants such as vitamin C aid in rebuilding damage after intense trainingthese two findings could be related. In a new study, researchers have found that adolescents blood levels of various micronutrients are correlated with how well they performed in certain physical fitness tests. Though these results dont prove causality, they suggest a new relationship between different measures of adolescent health.

The article is entitled Iron and Vitamin Status Biomarkers and its Association with Physical Fitness in Adolescents. The HELENA Study. and is online at http://bit.ly/Q2j6lJ. It appears in the online edition of the Journal of Applied Physiology, a publication of the American Physiological Society.

Methodology Researcher Luis Gracia-Marco of the University of Zaragoza, Spain and his colleagues relied on data from a larger, long-term research project known as the Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescents Cross-Sectional Study, or HELENA-CSS. Part of this study, which involved thousands of volunteers between the ages of 12.5 and 17.5 in cities scattered across Europe, gathered nutrition and physical fitness data. Blood samples taken in one third of the volunteers (n=1089) were tested for a variety of micronutrients, including hemoglobin, indicative of iron intake, soluble transferrin receptor, serum ferritin, retinol, vitamin C, beta-carotene, alpha-tocopherol, vitamin B6, cobalamin, holo-transcobalamin, plasma folate, RCB folate and vitamin D. The volunteers physical fitness was also assessed through a standing long jump test, which assesses lower-body muscular strength, and a 20 meter shuttle run test, which assesses cardiovascular fitness through maximal oxygen consumption (VO2max). When looking for correlations between the micronutrient levels and physical fitness, they took into account the adolescents age, time of year, latitude of the city they lived in, body mass index, age of menarche in females, and amount of regular physical activity (using accelerometers).

Results The researchers found that blood levels of certain micronutrients were intimately connected with the volunteers performance on the physical fitness tests. For cardiorespiratory fitness, concentrations of hemoglobin, retinol, and vitamin C in males and beta-carotene and vitamin D in females was associated with VO2max. For muscular fitness, concentrations of hemoglobin, beta-carotene, retinol, and alpha-tocopherol in males and beta-carotene and vitamin D in females was associated with performing better on the standing long jump test.

Importance of the Findings The authors suggest that studies connecting micronutrients, such as the ones they measured, with physical fitness in any population has been controversial and limited. This is especially true for adolescents, a group thats often difficult to gather information on. This new study, they say, is one of the first to find connections between micronutrients and physical fitness in this age group, with the strength of controlling the results for a complete set of relevant confounders. Yet, they note that more research still needs to be done.

The associations between physical fitness and iron or vitamin status observed in this cross-sectional study in adolescents should be followed up by a study specifically designed to evaluate causal relationships, the authors write.

Research Team In addition to Luis Gracia-Marco, the study team also includes Faustino R. Perez-Lopez, German Vicente-Rodriguez, and Luis A. Moreno, University of Zaragoza, Spain; Jara Valtuena and Marcela Gonzalez-Gross, Technical University of Madrid, Spain; Francisco B. Ortega, Karolinska Institute, Sweden; Christina Breidenassel and Peter Stehle, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms Universitat, Germany; Marika Ferrari and Giuseppe Maiani, National Research Institute on Food and Nutrition, Italy; Denes Molnar, University of Pecs, Hungary; Kurt Widhalm, Medical University of Vienna, Austria; Stefaan de Henauw, Ghent University, Belgium; Anthony Kafatos, University of Crete, Greece; Ligia E. Diaz, CSIC Madrid, Spain; Frederic Gottrand, University of Lille 2, France; and Manuel Castillo, University of Granada, Spain.

Funding Primary funding for the study was received from the Spanish Ministry of Health, Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation. Support for the HELENA Study was received through grants from the European Community Sixth TRD Framework Programme.

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Iron, Vitamins Could Affect Physical Fitness in Adolescents

TO: All University Departments, Colleges and Student Affairs Organizations FROM: New Student Services DATE: August 2, 2012 RE: UA Clicks: Mandatory New Student Event As we all prepare to welcome our newest Wildcats to campus New Student Services would like to take a few minutes to outline the details to our newest event for the incoming class of 2016- UA Clicks. On Friday, August 17th all freshman Wildcats are required to attend UA Clicks. The program provides a mandatory introduction to classroom technologies, academic expectations and information from the Dean of Students Office. A faculty member and current student will facilitate each session. Each student will attend a UA Clicks session based on his or her college. The chart below lists the check-in times and locations. Sessions will run for an hour and fifteen minutes. Attendance will be taken at each event. Students who fail to attend the event will be notified via their UA email account about a make up session that will be taking place on August 25th. College of Letters, Arts and Sciences – No Major Selected, General Studies and Global Studies Check in time at Centennial Hall:7:30 – 8:15am Eller College of Management Check in time at Centennial Hall:9:30 – 10:15am College of Science Check in time at Centennial Hall:11:30am – 12:15pm Colleges of Architecture, Humanities, Education, Fine Arts & Social and Behavioral Sciences Check in time at Centennial Hall:1:30 – 2:15pm Colleges of Nursing, Public Health and Pharmacy (pre-pharmacy) Check in time at Social Sciences 100: 8:00 – 8:45am College of Engineering Check in time at Social Sciences 100: 10:00 – 10:45am Department of Physiology (College of Medicine) Check in time at Social Sciences 100: 12:00 – 12:45pm College of Agriculture and Life Science Check in time at Social Sciences 100: 2:00 – 2:45pm Please encourage all students to attend this event. If you have any questions concerning the event please let us know. Wildcat Welcome: Web: welcome.arizona.edu Stefanie Basij Senior Coordinator, Orientation and Welcome University of Arizona Office - 520.621.1270 sbasij@email.arizona.edu

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Editor's Choice Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience Article Date: 28 Jul 2012 - 3:00 PDT

Current ratings for: Decoding The Secrets Of Balance

Over 70 million people in North America suffer from this condition. People with vestibular loss have a difficult time performing necessary daily living activities (like eating, dressing, getting in and out of bed, moving around the house and moving outside) because even turning their head slightly can make them dizzy and give them a risk of falling.

It has been known that a sensory system in the inner ear, known as the vestibular system, helps us keep our balance by keeping the visual field stable as we move around. Scientists have already developed basic knowledge of how the brain forms our perceptions of ourselves in motion. But until now no one has understood the most important step by which the neurons in the brain select the information needed to keep us balanced.

The information taken in and decoded by the brain, sent by neurons in the inner ear, is done so in a complex way. The peripheral vestibular sensory neurons in the inner ear take in the time varying velocity and acceleration stimuli caused by our movement in the outside world (for example, riding in a car that changes from a stationary position to 50 km per hour). Detailed information about these stimuli (information that helps reconstruct how stimuli change over time), in the form of nerve impulses, is transmitted by these neurons.

It was previously believed that the brain decoded this information linearly, attempting to reconstruct the time sequence of acceleration and velocity stimuli. However, two professors in McGill University's Department of Physiology, Kathleen Cullen and Maurice Chacron, combined electrophysiological and computational approaches and were able to show that neurons, in the vestibular nuclei in the brain, decode incoming information nonlinearly as they respond to sudden and unpredicted changes in stimuli.

At each stage in this sensory pathway, our representations in the outside world change. For example, neurons found in the visual system closer to the periphery of the sensory system (such as ganglion cells in the retina) usually respond to a wide variety of sensory stimuli (a "dense" code), unlike central neurons (primary visual cortex at the back of the head) that usually respond much more selectively (a "sparse" code). The selective transmission of vestibular information, which Chacron and Cullen documented for the first time, happens as early as the first synapse in the brain.

Cullen said:

Since this kind of selectivity in response enhances the brain's perception of unexpected changes in body posture, it is important for everyday life. For example, if you step off a curb you didn't see, within milliseconds, your brain is able to receive the necessary information and perform the sophisticated computation essential to helping you readjust your position.

The researchers hope this discovery will apply to other sensory systems and eventually to the development of better treatments for patients suffering from dizziness, vertigo, and disorientation during their everyday activities. This finding also has the potential to lead to treatments that will help reduce the symptoms that come with motion and/or space sickness that take place in more challenging environments.

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Decoding The Secrets Of Balance

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 28, 2012

Artist and Behavioral Specialist Greg Herzog, uses COLOR CODING DNA Technique, to help better understand the performance of Michael Phelps and his 2012 London Olympic medal quest.

So what is it that gives Michael Phelps his unique competitive edge?

Greg Herzog, a former sub four minute miler and conditioning specialist in New York City has worked with competitive athletes, as well as individuals from the ages 5-94, and has made studying human performance his lifes work. This extensive experience led to the development of AXIS CORE, a mathematical equation to predict and change behavior, as well as a Quantum Reaction Theory: COLOR CODING DNA, to help better understand the foundation of the makeup of an individual in regard to performance.

Herzog believes he has broken the code of Michael Phelps and his 2012 London Olympics medal quest.

Michael Phelps is an American international swimmer who has, overall, won 16 Olympic medalssix gold and two bronze at Athens in 2004, and eight gold at Beijing in 2008, winning more medals than any other athlete at both of these Olympic Games. He has twice equaled the record eight medals of any type at a single Olympics achieved by Soviet gymnast Alexander Dityatin at the 1980 Moscow Summer Games. His five gold medals in individual events tied the single Games record set by compatriot Eric Heiden in the 1980 Winter Olympics and equaled by Vitaly Scherbo at the 1992 Summer Games. Phelps holds the record for the most gold medals won in a single Olympics; his eight at the 2008 Beijing Games surpassed American swimmer Mark Spitz's seven-gold performance at Munich in 1972. Phelps' Olympic medal total is second only to the 18 Soviet gymnast Larisa Latynina won over three Olympics, including nine gold, that he hopes to eclipse in London Olympics 2012. Phelps also holds the all-time record for most gold Olympic medals, at 14, as well as the record for most gold medals in individual events, at nine.

Is one of the main reasons behind American swimmer Michael Phelps unprecedented success his whopping 12000 calories per day diet, or physiology or both?

Phelps begins his day with hearty breakfast consisting of three fried-egg sandwiches, three chocolate chip pancakes, a five-egg omelet, three sugarcoated slices of French toast, and a bowl of grits(maize porridge).

Phelps lunch is not much smaller as he annihilates a pound of pasta over lunch, two large ham and cheese sandwiches covered in mayonnaise and many gallons of energy drinks.

For his evening meal, he finishes the remaining pound of pasta, followed by a pizza and more energy drinks.

Continued here:
Artist and Behavioral Specialist Greg Herzog, uses COLOR CODING DNA® Technique, to help better understand the ...

Courtesy Wyss Institute

Wyss Institute researchers and a multidisciplinary team of collaborators seek to build and link 10 human organs-on-chips to mimic whole body physiology. The system will incorporate the Institutes Human Gut-on-a-Chip (seen here).

Harvards Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University announced recently it will receive $37 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop technology that studies the human physiology.

The five-year project will be led by Wyss Founding Director, Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D. and Wyss faculty member, Kevin Kit Parker, Ph.D. in conjunction with Wyss researchers and a multidisciplinary team of collaborators, a statement reads.

The project will develop an automated instrument that integrates 10, organs-on-chips to study complex human physiology outside the body.

Serving as an alternative to traditional animal testing models that often fail to predict human responses, the automated instrument will be used to rapidly assess responses to new drug candidates, providing critical information on their safety and efficacy, according to the release.

Equal in size to a computer memory stick, each individual chip is composed of a clear flexible polymer that contains hollow microfluidic channels lined by living human cells.

Because of the translucency of the microdevices, researchers have a window into the inner-workings of human organs without having to invade a living body.

The goal is to shorten the time and cost it takes to develop drugs, and more importantly, to increase the likelihood of success when the drug finally is tested in humans currently it is less than 15 percent success, even after many years and hundreds of millions to billions investment, Ingber wrote in an email to Mass High Tech.

In a statement, Jesse Goodman, Food and Drug Administration chief scientist and deputy commissioner for science and public health, said the automated human-on-chip instrument being developed has the potential to be a better model for determining human adverse responses. FDA looks forward to working with the Wyss Institute in its development of this model that may ultimately be used in therapeutic development.

Originally posted here:
Harvard gets $37M to develop 'human-on-a-chip' tech

ScienceDaily (July 24, 2012) The opportunistic fungal pathogen Candida albicans inconspicuously lives in our bodies until it senses that we are weak, when it quickly adapts to go on the offensive. The fungus, known for causing yeast and other minor infections, also causes a sometimes-fatal infection known as candidemia in immunocompromised patients. An in vivo study, published in mBio, demonstrates how C. albicans can distinguish between a healthy and an unhealthy host and alter its physiology to attack.

"The ability of the fungus to sense the immune status of its host may be key to its ability to colonize harmlessly in some people but become a deadly pathogen in others," said Jessica V. Pierce, BA, PhD student in the molecular microbiology program at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences at Tufts.

"Effective detection and treatment of disease in immunocompromised patients could potentially work by targeting the levels of a protein, Efg1p, that we found influenced the growth of Candida albicans inside the host," she continued.

The researchers knew from previous research that Efg1p influences the expression of genes that regulate how harmful a fungal cell can become. Surprisingly, the investigators found that lower Efg1p levels allow the fungal cells to grow to high levels inside a host. Higher levels of the protein result in less growth.

To examine how the immune status could affect the growth of C. albicans within a host, the researchers fed both healthy and immunocompromised mice equal amounts of two fungal strains containing two different levels of the Efg1p protein.

Fecal pellets from the mice were tested to determine which strain of fungi thrived. In a healthy host, the fungal cells with higher levels of the protein predominated.

In immunocompromised mice, the fungal cells with lower levels of the protein flourished. The researchers noted that lack of interactions with immune cells in the intestinal tract most likely caused the necessary environmental conditions favoring fungal cells that express lower levels of the protein, resulting in fungal overgrowth and setting the stage for systemic infection.

"By having a mixed population with some high Efg1p cells and some low Efg1p cells, the fungus can adjust its physiology to remain benign or become harmful when it colonizes hosts with varying immune statuses. These findings are important because they provide the first steps toward developing more effective methods for detecting and treating serious and stubborn infections caused by Candida albicans, such as candidemia," said Carol A. Kumamoto, PhD, professor of molecular biology and microbiology at Tufts University School of Medicine and member of the molecular microbiology and genetics program faculties at the Sackler School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences.

The immune system and "good bacteria" within the body act to regulate the size of C. albicans fungal populations in healthy individuals. When the immune system is compromised, the fungus can spread throughout the body. Candidemia, i.e. blood-borne Candida, is the fourth most common blood infection among hospitalized patients in the United States and is found in immunocompromised patients such as babies, those with catheters, and the critically ill.

This research was supported in part by grants #AI076156, #AI08179, and #AI07422 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health.

View original post here:
How a common fungus knows when to attack

High dietary intake of sodium could lead to depletion of calcium in the body, according to new research.

The study published in the American Journal of Physiology Renal Physiology reveals that sodium and calcium extraction are regulated by the same cellular systems, meaning that when the body tries to excrete excess sodium from a high-salt-diet it also flushes calcium out.

"We asked a simple question with our research could sodium and calcium absorption be linked?" explains Dr Todd Alexander, from the University of Alberta, Canada, who led the research. "And we discovered that they are."He says the findings provide very real biological evidence that a relationship between sodium and calcium balance is real and linked."

"When the body tries to get rid of sodium via the urine, our findings suggest the body also gets rid of calcium at the same time," he says. This is significant because we are eating more and more sodium in our diets, which means our bodies are getting rid of more and more calcium. Our findings reinforce why it is important to have a low-sodium diet and why it is important to have lower sodium levels in processed foods."

The researchers warn that as calcium is excreted in urine it raises the risk of developing kidney stones while inadequate levels of calcium in the body can lead to an increased risk of osteoporosis.

Study details

The authors note that while it has been long known that the sodiumhydrogen exchanger 3(NHE3)molecule was responsible for sodium absorption in the body, the discovery that it also plays a role in regulating calcium levels is new. "We found a molecule that seems to have two jobs regulating the levels of both calcium and sodium in the body, says Alexander.

In their research, the team worked with lab models that lacked the gene to code for the NHE3 receptor molecule. They found those animals with no NHE3 receptor had urine that contained high levels of calcium.

Alexander and his team add that because calcium was not absorbed and retained by the body, the bones of the lab animals became thin.

Source: American Journal of Physiology Renal Physiology Volume 302, Number8, Pages F943-F956, doi: 10.1152/ajprenal.00504.2010 The epithelial sodium/proton exchanger, NHE3, is necessary for renal and intestinal calcium (re)absorption Authors: Wanling Pan, Jelena Borovac, Zachary Spicer, Joost G. Hoenderop, Ren J. Bindels, et al

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Too much salt could mean to too little calcium, say researchers

Using rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film, researchers have constructed a swimming jellyfish like creature that can be used to study everything from marine biology to cardiac physiology.

Using rat heart cells and silicone polymer, researchers have bioengineered a "jellyfish" that knows how to swim.

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The odd jellyfish mimic, dubbed a "Medusoid" by its creators, is more than a curiosity. It's a natural biological pump, just like the human heart. That makes it a good model to use to study cardiac physiology, said study researcher Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University.

"The idea is to look at a muscular pump other than the heart or othermuscular organ and see if there are some fundamental similarities, ordesign principles, that are conserved across them," Parker told LiveScience. "This study revealedthat there are." [10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]

Jellyfish propel themselves with a pumping action, as anyone who has ever watched them float around an aquarium tank can attest. Parker was looking for a way to tackle questions about the heart that aren't well understood when he saw some jellyfish in a display in 2007.

"I thought, 'I can build this,'" he said.

The ingredients were rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film. ("The world needs less rats and more jellyfish, so I thought it would be cool to do a one-for-one swap," Parker joked.) Along with researchers from the California Institute of Technology, he and his team engineered the cells and silicone in a pattern that mimicked the structure of a real jellyfish. They then stuck the creature in a tank full of electrically conducting fluid and zapped it with current.

The result was a swimming, pulsating creature that acts not unlike a real jellyfish (without the eating and reproducing, of course).

The rest is here:
Scientists create artificial jellyfish from rat heart cells (+video)

Using rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film, researchers have constructed a swimming jellyfish like creature that can be used to study everything from marine biology to cardiac physiology.

Using rat heart cells and silicone polymer, researchers have bioengineered a "jellyfish" that knows how to swim.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

The odd jellyfish mimic, dubbed a "Medusoid" by its creators, is more than a curiosity. It's a natural biological pump, just like the human heart. That makes it a good model to use to study cardiac physiology, said study researcher Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University.

"The idea is to look at a muscular pump other than the heart or othermuscular organ and see if there are some fundamental similarities, ordesign principles, that are conserved across them," Parker told LiveScience. "This study revealedthat there are." [10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]

Jellyfish propel themselves with a pumping action, as anyone who has ever watched them float around an aquarium tank can attest. Parker was looking for a way to tackle questions about the heart that aren't well understood when he saw some jellyfish in a display in 2007.

"I thought, 'I can build this,'" he said.

The ingredients were rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film. ("The world needs less rats and more jellyfish, so I thought it would be cool to do a one-for-one swap," Parker joked.) Along with researchers from the California Institute of Technology, he and his team engineered the cells and silicone in a pattern that mimicked the structure of a real jellyfish. They then stuck the creature in a tank full of electrically conducting fluid and zapped it with current.

The result was a swimming, pulsating creature that acts not unlike a real jellyfish (without the eating and reproducing, of course).

View original post here:
Scientists create artificial jellyfish from rat's heart cells (+video)

Using rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film, researchers have constructed a swimming jellyfish like creature that can be used to study everything from marine biology to cardiac physiology.

Using rat heart cells and silicone polymer, researchers have bioengineered a "jellyfish" that knows how to swim.

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition

The odd jellyfish mimic, dubbed a "Medusoid" by its creators, is more than a curiosity. It's a natural biological pump, just like the human heart. That makes it a good model to use to study cardiac physiology, said study researcher Kevin Kit Parker, a bioengineer at Harvard University.

"The idea is to look at a muscular pump other than the heart or othermuscular organ and see if there are some fundamental similarities, ordesign principles, that are conserved across them," Parker told LiveScience. "This study revealedthat there are." [10 Amazing Facts About Your Heart]

Jellyfish propel themselves with a pumping action, as anyone who has ever watched them float around an aquarium tank can attest. Parker was looking for a way to tackle questions about the heart that aren't well understood when he saw some jellyfish in a display in 2007.

"I thought, 'I can build this,'" he said.

The ingredients were rat heart muscle cells and a thin silicone film. ("The world needs less rats and more jellyfish, so I thought it would be cool to do a one-for-one swap," Parker joked.) Along with researchers from the California Institute of Technology, he and his team engineered the cells and silicone in a pattern that mimicked the structure of a real jellyfish. They then stuck the creature in a tank full of electrically conducting fluid and zapped it with current.

The result was a swimming, pulsating creature that acts not unlike a real jellyfish (without the eating and reproducing, of course).

Original post:
Scientists create artificial jellyfish from rat's heart cells

The effect of spaceflight on a microscopic worm - Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) - could help it to live longer. The discovery was made by an international group of scientists studying the loss of bone and muscle mass experienced by astronauts after extended flights in space. The results of this research have been published, July 5 2012, in the online journal Scientific Reports.

Dr Nathaniel Szewczyk, from The University of Nottingham, was part of the ICE-FIRST project which involved scientists from Japan, France, the US, and Canada. They discovered that spaceflight suppressed accumulation of toxic proteins that normally accumulate within aging muscle. They also discovered a group of genes that are expressed at lower levels during spaceflight. When the expression of these same genes were lowered in worms back on Earth the worms lived longer.

Dr Szewczyk, an expert in muscle metabolism, said: "We identified seven genes, which were down-regulated in space and whose inactivation extended lifespan under laboratory conditions."

How do these genes play a role in longevity control? "We are not entirely certain, but it would appear that these genes are involved in how the worm senses the environment and signals changes in metabolism in order to adapt to the environment.

"For example, one of the genes we have identified encodes insulin which, because of diabetes, is well known to be associated with metabolic control. In worms, flies, and mice insulin is also associated with modulation of lifespan."

What could this mean for space travellers? "Well, most of us know that muscle tends to shrink in space. These latest results suggest that this is almost certainly an adaptive response rather than a pathological one. Counter-intuitively, muscle in space may age better than on Earth. It may also be that spaceflight slows the process of aging."

Dr Szewczyk's role was to provide expertise in the culturing of worms in CeMM - a special liquid food for worms. Dr Szewczyk transported the samples to and from the Russian launch site and ran a series of 'health' checks to ensure that the tiny astronauts were fit for flying. On their return he helped with the analysis of the data.

Nottingham's space biology lab Dr Szewczyk studies the signals that control muscle protein degradation in the human body. C. elegans is the perfect substitute for studying long-term changes in human physiology because they suffer from muscle atrophy - muscle loss - under many of the same conditions that people do.

C. elegans was the first multi-cellular organism to have its genetic structure completely mapped and many of its 20,000 genes perform the same functions as those in humans. Two thousand of these genes have a role in promoting muscle function and 50 to 60 per cent of these have very obvious human counterparts.

When the research began Dr Szewczyk was working at NASA. He is now based at The University of Nottingham's MRC and Arthritis Research UK Centre for Musculoskeletal Ageing Research. He is one of the leading scientists studying 'worms in space' and his lab is currently the most productive 'space biology' lab in the UK.

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Spaceflight may extend the lifespan of microscopic worm

IRVINE, Calif., July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Masimo (MASI) announced today a new study in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology shows that noninvasive carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO) and methemoglobin (SpMet) measurements with Masimo rainbow Pulse CO-Oximetry are accurate and conclude they can be used as an effective first screening test with emergency room patients suspected of suffering carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.(1)

CO poisoning is a major cause of morbidity and mortality(2) and is responsible for more than 50,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States.(3) Because symptoms of CO poisoning are nonspecific ranging from mild headache, nausea, confusion, and dizziness to end-organ injury, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and death diagnosis is difficult and has historically relied on clinical suspicion and confirmation by measurement of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) via invasive blood-gas analysis. Unfortunately, it has been estimated that up to half of U.S. hospitals do not have invasive COHb testing ability increasing the potential that many victims of CO poisoning could be overlooked and misdiagnosed.(4)

The study was conducted on healthy subjects who inhaled a mixture that included carbon monoxide such that it raised the COHb to 10% to 14%. Investigators compared the mean bias and precision of SpCO and SpMet data obtained noninvasively with a Masimo Rad-57 Pulse CO-Oximeter and adult reusable SpCO rainbow sensor (DCI-dc3) with invasive venous blood samples analyzed on an arterial blood-gas analyzer (ABL80 FLEX CO-oximeter, Radiometer America).

The SpMet results showed the mean bias was 0.0% and precision was 0.3%. The SpCO measurements showed a mean bias of 0.8% and precision of 2.5%.

Researchers noted the Rad-57 "provides coherent and reproducible day-to-day measurement" of SpCO and SpMet, and concluded the "Rad-57 should be used as a first screening to determine whether an invasive blood measurement of COHb should be performed to confirm the (CO) intoxication."

(1) Zaouter C, Zavorsky G. "The measurement of carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin using a noninvasive pulse CO-oximeter." Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 2012 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2012.05.010)

(2)Suner S, Patridge R, Sucov A, et al. "Noninvasive pulse CO-oximetry screening in the emergency department identifies occult carbon monoxide toxicity." J Emerg Med. 2008; 34(4):441-50.

(3) Weaver LK. "Carbon monoxide poisoning." N Engl J Med. 2009; 360(12):1217-1225.

(4) Hampson NB, Scott KL, Zmaeff JL. Carboxyhemoglobin measurement by hospitals: Implications for the diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning. J Emerg Med 2006;31(1):13-6.

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New Study Affirms Masimo rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximetry™ Accuracy for Noninvasive Carboxyhemoglobin and Methemoglobin ...

Editor's Choice Academic Journal Main Category: Nutrition / Diet Also Included In: Neurology / Neuroscience;Psychology / Psychiatry Article Date: 05 Jul 2012 - 0:00 PDT

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In an animal study, lead researcher Yves Sauve and colleagues discovered mice that consumed a diet high in DHA had 30% higher levels of DHA in the hippocampus region of the brain, compared with mice fed on a regular, healthy diet.

Sauve, a researcher in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, who works in the department of physiology, the department of ophthalmology and the Center of Neuroscience, explained:

The researchers confirmed that when DHA is added to a diet, additional stores of DHA are deposited in the brain. Sauve explains that consuming more fish or taking supplements could prevent DHA levels decreasing in the brain as we age.

In an earlier study, Sauve found that consuming DHA stops a toxic molecule at the back of the eye that causes age-related vision loss from accumulating.

Cold-water oceanic fish oils are rich in DHA. DHA can also be manufactured commercially from microalgae.

The following foods are rich in DHA:

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Why Does A Diet High In DHA Improve Memory?

Dr. John Bell has a Ph. D in Physiology and Pharmacology from the University of California, San Diego. He is the Dean of Undergraduate Education and a professor in the Department of Physiology and Developmental Biology.

Q: What made you pursue physiology and pharmacology all the way to a Ph. D?

I wanted to be a scientist from the time I was a child. I discovered as an undergraduate student that I really liked a mixture of chemistry, physics and biology. Those disciplines offered that opportunity, as well as being disciplines in the life sciences, that are a bit more practical in terms of employment than some others that also interested me. There are both industrial as well as academic opportunities there. Academic opportunities in institutions like BYU that are predominately undergraduate as well as places that have professional schools, such as medical school, dental school and things like that. It offered me an opportunity to pursue my interests as well as provide a wide range of potential employment.

Q: Are you currently involved in any research or academic projects?

Thats all I do. I have administrative responsibilities for General Education, Honors and Freshman Year. The director of our Honors Program and I were just discussing some of the ideas of where the Honors Program might go. So, Im constantly involved in projects. In my research lab I study cell membranes and the physics of some of the molecules that are embedded in the cell membrane and how that impacts certain pathological situations involved with cancers and involved with inflammatory diseases. I would say the work I do is more basic than applied. That means its more in terms of identifying an understanding of what exists in nature. Other researchers, whose interest are more in the direction of application, take that information and apply it in ways to generate treatment.

Q: How has student-teacher interaction changed for you since becoming the Dean of Undergraduate Education?

There has been a change in what courses I teach because I felt an increased need to teach courses in the Honors Program or General Education. For many years Ive taught somewhat in those arenas, now I certainly think more about what happens in a course that I teach in General Education as well as for majors. I think in terms of General Education more than I used to. I have the opportunity of teaching in some situations that I would not have predicted. For example, I teach a course in mathematical modeling and a course in statistics for students that have specific kinds of backgrounds. While Ive had expertise in those areas in terms of my research and training, Ive never imagined myself teaching those things because Im not a member of those faculties. My interactions with Honors and General Education have offered me the opportunity to participate in those things where it would have otherwise not have happened.

Q: What is your personal teaching philosophy?

It is to focus on student learning, what the student is doing, whats happening in the students head and focus on helping students be empowered so that they have a very deep and thorough understanding. The goal is expertise, really. Students come as novices and the goal is that by the end of the course theyre experts. Not about everything, but what is in the course; they have expertise in those areas. My job is to help them make the transition from being a novice to being an expert. That means I need to understand what the characteristics of an expert are, and make those transparent to the student. Then I help the student learn whether they are acquiring those characteristics, whether those are things in their possession or are not yet acquired. That refocuses the students attention away from the study guide idea that if they memorize the words and say something intelligent about these concepts theyll be fine to saying, Am I an expert or not? Can I apply these? Can I solve problems? Can I think, talk and write about these? Do I thoroughly understand them? Do I own them? That means there needs to be effort in reflection. Its what we call metacognitive skills, where the student learns to evaluate their own understanding and assess whether they do or dont own them. It helps them to identify misconceptions and ways to resolve them, as well as identify resources that would be helpful. Its whole different strategy than simply reviewing notes, which is a potential challenge in a discipline that is information-rich. My philosophy is to help them develop their true understanding and expertise.

Q: How has your experience been at BYU?

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5 Questions: Dr. John Bell

Physiological Reports to provide peer reviewed research on basic, translational and clinical physiology; international call for Editor-in-Chief to be issued

Newswise BETHESDA, MD and LONDON, UK (June 29, 2012) The American Physiological Society (APS) and The Physiological Society announce their partnership to publish a new open-access peer-reviewed journal Physiological Reports. Nominations will be sought immediately from leading academics in the field for the position of Editor-in-Chief prior to the Journal launch in early 2013.

Physiological Reports will offer peer-reviewed research across all areas of basic, translational and clinical physiology and allied disciplines for physiologists, neuroscientists, biophysicists and clinicians. Papers will be accepted solely on the basis of scientific rigor, adherence to technical and ethical standards, and evidence that the data support the conclusions.

APS President, Susan M. Barman, said: The primary purpose of the journal is to give authors a quick decision about acceptance of their research and offer minimal delay for publication. For well over 100 years, the APS and The Physiological Society have published internationally-acclaimed journals. We are in a unique position to serve the international physiology community with a further outlet for research.

The Physiological Society President, Mike Spyer, said: This is the latest and most significant collaboration between the societies, combining our efforts to promote research in physiology and promoting conversations about new findings. Being jointly produced by APS and The Physiological Society puts this new journal in a really strong position from the first issue. In Europe, North America, and beyond, this will be a credible place to get research published and widely disseminated quickly.

Physiological Reports will consider manuscripts as the result of direct submissions or as referrals from one of the APS or Physiological Society journals, with author approval.

Notes to Editor

1. The inaugural issue will be published in early 2013. The first 100 papers published in Physiological Reports will be published free of charge.

2. Physiology is the study of how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function to create health or disease. The American Physiological Society, with more than 11,000 members, has been an integral part of this discovery process since it was established in 1887. http://www.the-aps.org

3. The Physiological Society, founded in 1876, represents the largest body of physiologists in Europe, with over 3000 Members from over 60 countries. The Society engages in activities to support the advancement of physiological research, plays an important role in supporting the teaching of physiology at schools and universities, and works to raise the profile of physiology within government and amongst the general public. http://www.physoc.org

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American Physiological Society and The Physiological Society Collaborate to Publish New Open Access Journal

Public release date: 28-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Maria Jesus Delgado MariaJesus.Delgado@uab.cat 34-935-814-049 Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona

The journal Nature has published a study analysing the lines of arrested growth (LAG) in the bones of around a hundred ruminants, representative of the specific and ecological diversity of that group of mammals. The results show that the presence of these lines is not an indicator of an ectothermic physiology (does not generate internal heat), as had previously been thought, since all warm-blooded mammals have them. The study therefore dismantles the key argument of the hypothesis that dinosaurs could have been cold-blooded reptiles. The work was carried out by researchers from the Institut Catal de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), in collaboration with a researcher from the Norwegian Polar Institute.

LAGs are seen in bone sections as dark rings, similar to those seen in tree trunks. The rings are formed, both in the studied mammals and in trees, during the unfavourable seasons (winter or dry season) when the growth of the organism is arrested as a result of a lack of resources. The presence of LAGs in bones was, until now, considered to be the clearest indicator of ectothermy since the seasonal arrest of growth was related to the animal's inability to maintain a more or less constant body temperature (endothermy) during the season of scarce resources.

As the ICREA researcher and ICP palaeontologist Meike Khler explains: The study we have carried out is very powerful, both in terms of the amount of material and the diversity of species with which we worked, but we did not design it to find a response to the thermophysiology of dinosaurs. We sought to better understand the physiology of extant mammals and how the environment affects them how their growth changes as a result of external temperatures, rain and the availability of food and water".

Understanding this was the first step to establishing discussions in paleontological research about the physiology of animals that lived several million years ago.

But the researchers realised that what they observed in the bones of different ruminants refutes the main argument for an ectothermic physiology in dinosaurs. Many hypotheses set out from the premise that large mammals endothermic par excellence do not have LAGs in their hard tissues since they do not need to arrest their growth responding to external temperature conditions. In fact, since LAGs have been observed in almost all species of dinosaur, many scientists considered that they were cold-blooded reptiles.

The article published today in Nature offers the first systematic study, based on an extensive sample of mammals representative of a large variety of ecosystems, which shows that LAGs do not indicate an ectothermic physiology but give us information about how the physiology (metabolism) of an animal changes according to seasonal endocrinal changes, both in cold- and warm-blooded animals. These changes represent a common heritage in all vertebrates and are a kind of internal clock that regulates the animals' needs according to the seasonal availability of resources. Despite the fact that these physiological changes have a strong genetic component, they are also functional and their intensity depends on the ecological conditions in which the animals live. The main ecological factors are more rain and limited supply of food and water, rather than external temperature. This discovery opens up a major line of research into the conservation of biodiversity on our planet today.

Researcher Meike Khler says:

It may seem surprising that until now there has not been a similar systematic study to prove or disprove whether it is only ectotherms that leave these marks in their bones during growth. In fact, there are so many things we do not know that science does not always advance in a linear way. The ideas somehow had long been wandering among the scientific community, but the work we have published organizes them and bases them on data.

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Dinosaurs were warm-blooded reptiles