First-Ever Recording Of Blood Vessel Development During Organ Formation

A new microscope system that can take 3-D pictures of an embryonic mouse organ over 24 to 48 hours has shown Duke Medical Center researchers the first glimpse of the formation of blood vessels during development.
Among other things, a team lead by cell biologist Blanche Capel, Ph.D., has found a previously unknown mechanism in the formation of blood vessels that may help scientists better understand how a tumor rallies a blood supply to its aid.
Using mice that have blood vessel cells marked by green fluorescence, the Duke University cell biologists studied vessels that supply mouse gonads. These are the embryonic organs that give rise to ovaries or testes later in development.
The team studied gonads because they could remove and culture the gonad along with the nearby tissue that initially houses the major blood vessels. This way they could watch how the blood vessel system (vasculature) develops as the gonad changes into a testis or ovary.
The scientists’ novel system for studying development using time-lapse microscopy and tiny samples of tissue shed new light on the dynamic process of organ formation. This system answered key questions about how the vasculature gets fitted into the organ as it forms, Capel said. Before this, scientists could only image one point in development at a time.
The striking new images became the cover story of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and were assembled into a time-lapse movie.
The research was funded by grants from the National Institutes of Health Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Lalor Foundation.
The Duke team was surprised by the vigorous cell movements involved in the development of male gonads. "In the male gonad, the major blood vessel in the adjacent tissue comes apart and the individual blood vessel cells move to a new location, and reassemble into new vessels inside the testis," Capel said. "This breakdown process represents a possible way for growing tumors to access a blood supply, by commandeering a mechanism similar to the ones organs use to recruit vessels into the tumor."
She pointed out that a blood supply is critical to a growing tumor, and this may be an important mechanism in the formation of blood vessels in tumors that scientists have not appreciated before. "That is an exciting finding," Capel said.
This imaging in 3-D over time was possible because Capel’s laboratory already had developed a culture system for studying the organ in the lab. "We were positioned to convert that to a live imaging system when advances in microscopy became available at Duke University Medical Center," Capel explained. "The Duke Department of Cell Biology has an imaging facility that is really outstanding, and our chair, Brigid Hogan, has put a lot of energy into making sure it is state of the art. One of the authors on this paper, Tim Oliver, who manages this facility, helped us to get the imaging set up."
The organs were placed in small wells in an agar block designed to hold them still. The entire system was enclosed in a humidified and temperature-controlled chamber around the microscope. Scientists captured an image every 20 minutes for 24-48 hours, then later assembled the images in sequence to make movies.
It wasn’t easy, Capel said. "We had to work a lot of kinks out of the system. For example, we were exposing the organ to a laser to detect the fluorescent vascular cells throughout the duration of the culture. But too much laser light damages cells. You need to create a bright enough fluorescence in the cells so that you don’t have to turn the laser on such a high setting that it kills cells during the culture period."
This success with recording the growth of blood vessels has spurred the Capel lab team on to new projects. "Our goal now is to have different colored fluorescent markers for other types of cells in the organ. I hope we can simultaneously image the vessels and other cells as the vessels move into the organ, so we can see how they interact together as a functional organ is forming."

Pomegranate Fights MRSA and Other Superbugs

The rind of pomegranate appears to deliver a powerful punch against the highly resistant staph infection called MRSA, along with other superbugs that haunt hospital and nursing home patients. Researchers from Kingston University in Surrey report that pomegranate can be used in a topical medication to fight such serious and deadly infections.
MRSA, which stands for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, is a strain of staph that is resistant to the broad-spectrum antibiotics used to treat it. MRSA infections can be acquired in the community or in a healthcare facility and is transmitted primarily through skin-to-skin contact or contact with shared surfaces that have been contaminated with the organism. A report in the AAOS Now notes that the number of hospital admissions for MRSA in 2005 were triple those in 2000 and ten times higher than in 1995. An October 2007 report in the Journal of the American Medical Association noted that of the 94,360 US patients who developed MRSA in 2005, nearly 20 percent (18,650) died.
Currently, 85 percent of MRSA infections are healthcare related. The death rate, length of hospital stay, and the cost of treating patients who have MRSA are more than twice that of other hospital admissions. While older adults and people who have a compromised immune system are most at risk of hospital-acquired MRSA, otherwise healthy, younger people can acquire community associated MRSA, which is responsible for serious skin infections and pneumonia.
The researchers from Kingston University conducted a series of tests over three years and found that when they mixed pomegranate rind with two other natural substances—metal salts and vitamin C—the ability of the rind to fight infections greatly increased. They hope their discovery can lead to the development of a topical medication to treat drug-resistant infections and perhaps even lead to a new antibiotic. A new effective antibiotic would be a significant breakthrough given the rise of infections that are resistant to the antibiotics currently on the market.
While the pharmaceutical industry typically focuses on one specific active molecule when developing a drug, the Kingston University researchers found that when they combined three natural ingredients, they achieved a much more potent product that could kill or inhibit drug-resistant microbes from growing. Declan Naughton, professor of biomolecular sciences at Kingston, noted that “there was synergy, where the combined effects were much greater than those exhibited by individual components.”
The research team found that while pomegranate rind mixed with metal salts was most effective against MRSA, the addition of vitamin C helped fight other common hospital infections. Unlike antibiotics and other medications, which are associated with significant side effects, Naughton said that using foods as the basis for treatment meant that patients would be much more likely to tolerate its use.
Pomegranate is being investigated for a wide variety of health-related uses, ranging from fighting prostate cancer to obesity, heart disease, and impotence. Preliminary studies in humans suggest that tannins found in pomegranate can reduce oxidative stress, while metabolites called ellagitannins may be helpful in combating prostate cancer.
The fact that a combination of pomegranate, metal salts, and vitamin C has been effective against MRSA and other superbug infections is “potentially significant,” says Anthony Coates, professor of medical microbiology at St. George’s in London. “The need for new antibiotics is acute,” he said. Although more research is needed, Coates noted that “Most antibiotics come from nature, so it is very valid to look at natural sources.”

Republicans In Stem Cell Showdown in Missouri

While researchers repor a new breakthrough of brain stem correcting a congenital brain disorder in mice Republicans are in a stem cell showdown in Missouri over the issue of protecting human embryonic stem cell. This publication eMaxHealth is against using embryonic stem cell for research because we are not to decide at what point life begins.
Amie Newman reports from Rhrealitycheck blog.
In an election season in which old habits seems to be dying relatively easily, a group of wealthy and highly influential Republicans from Missouri are embracing the trend wholeheartedly.
From today’s Daily Women’s Health Policy Report:
"Nineteen "prominent" Missouri Republicans, including former U.S. Sen. John Danforth, recently launched a campaign committee aimed at protecting human embryonic stem cell research in the state, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports."
This rebel group of Republicans took a stand to counter a new platform being adopted by the Missouri Republican Party that calls for a ban on any human embryonic stem cell research in the state.
The state’s two Republican gubernatorial candidates – U.S. Representative Kenny Hulshop and Treasurer Sarah Steelman – both oppose embryonic stem cell research.
Despite what seems to be a majority Republican opinion on embryonic stem cell research in the state, this group of nineteen Republicans – noted for the millions of dollars they have contributed over the years to Republican campaigns and the state party – are unyielding in their commitment to this issue.
U.S. Senator John Danforth says, "What we want to make clear is that there are Republicans who are credible, and with impeccable credentials, who are very strongly on the other side."
According to the St. Louis Dispatch, the group, Republicans To Protect Medical Advances, reads like a who’s who list of high-end political donors. It includes William H.T. "Bucky" Bush (President George W. Bush’s uncle), Jack Taylor (retired founder of Enterprise Rent-A-Car), and Marilyn Fox, the wife of Sam Fox, U.S Ambassador to Belgium.
Danforth supports Senator John McCain, as McCain is in favor of federal funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Now, if we can get a group of prominent Republicans to take a stand on behalf of common sense reproductive health prevention strategies — including ensuring Title X (contraception for low-income women and men) remains intact, increased funding for comprehensive sexuality education and repealing the Hyde Amendment — we’d really be getting somewhere.

Doctors Ignore FDA Warning to Screen Users for Antipsychotic drugs

A study which was done by health researchers from Oregon, Colorado, Georgia and Missouri, and just published in the Archives of General Psychiatry released January 2010, concluded that many doctors have largely ignored a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning to screen users of new antipsychotic drugs for high blood sugar and cholesterol. Both of these medical conditions can be a very high risk to health. In addition it begins to raise questions about the efficacy of warnings.
The research analyzed about 109,000 Medicaid patients taking "second generation" antipsychotic drugs, which can cause increases in blood sugar, cholesterol and significant weight gain, as well as other symptoms – significantly raising the risk of diabetes.
Researchers found that most doctors never changed their level of baseline screening for blood sugar and cholesterol, despite a strong warning in 2003 from the FDA and two other organizations that antipsychotic drugs could raise the risk of diabetes in a patient population that already was at higher risk for this disease.
The existing baseline screening and ongoing monitoring of glucose and lipid levels in these patients was already pretty low, and the FDA warning really had no impact in changing that," said Daniel Hartung, an assistant professor of pharmacy instruction in the College of Pharmacy at Oregon State University.
"The side effects that can be caused by these new types of antipsychotic medications, some of which were first approved in the 1990s, are not trivial," Hartung said. "Increases in blood sugar, cholesterol and body weight can lead to diabetes in some cases, and this patient group already has a problem with diabetes that's almost twice that of the general population."
These second-generation antipsychotic drugs known as olanzapine, aripiprazole and others, are extremely powerful medications and were originally developed for treatment of schizophrenia, Hartung said. They were originally prescribed only by psychiatrists, however their use has now expanded widely into treatment for problems such as bipolar disorder and less serious mental health problems such as depression and dementia. These powerful drugs are often administered by general practitioners.
"Part of the problem may be that simply sending doctors a letter about these issues, which come up every now and then with medications, is just not getting the job done," Hartung said. "With this group of medications, at least, it clearly wasn't effective, and it does raise questions about whether new approaches are needed. Part of the problem may also be people moving from one doctor to another, and inaccurate assumptions about testing being made."
Anyone taking these medications, Hartung said, may wish to discuss with their physicians what type of metabolic screening they’ve had, and consider glucose and lipid testing if it has not already been done if they are on these second-generation antipsychotic drugs since many doctors are ignoring the FDA warning.