Researchers said: stem cells from tiny embryos can be used to restore lost hearing and they 
believe it is a 1st step toward helping people. Their findings help describe some of the most basic biological processes underlying the development of hearing and sight, and may help in the development of the new field of regenerative medicine.
Dr. Sujeong Jang of Chonnam National University in Gwang-ju, South Korea, and colleagues used mesenchymal stem cells from human bone marrow to restore hearing in guinea pigs whose hearing had been destroyed using chemicals. They grew the stem cells into neuron-like cells in lab dishes and then transplanted them into the inner ears of the guinea pigs. Three months later, the animals appeared to have some hearing, Jang told a meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
They would eventually like to try something similar in humans, Jang told a news conference. Jang said: "When sensitive hair cells in the inner ear of humans and other mammals are killed by loud noise, autoimmune attack, toxic drugs, or aging the damage is permanent." "Birds and reptiles are luckier. Their damaged hair cells apparently regenerate and can restore normal hearing."
Usually, frog stem cells just form skin when grown in a dish. Zuber's team added seven different genetic "factors" that turned on eye formation genes. When they transplanted the transformed cells into frog embryos, the resulting tadpoles could see out of those eyes. They tested the tadpoles by putting white tissue paper over their tank, Zuber said in an interview. Normal tadpoles will stay in the lighter side of the tank, covered by the white paper. Genetic tests showed that the stem cells had transformed, a process called differentiation, into many different cell types.
Stem cells
Woman gets first trachea transplant without drugs
Woman gets first trachea transplant without drugs
An international research team reported: Colombian woman has received the world's first tailor-made trachea transplant, grown by seeding a donor organ with her own stem cells to prevent her body rejecting it. The success of the operation, performed in June using tissue generated from the woman's own bone marrow, raises the prospect that transplanting other organs may be possible without drugs to dampen the immune system.
Doctors work hard to match tissue type when transplanting organs so that the body does not completely reject the new organ, but patients usually have to take immunosuppressant for the rest of their lives. Claudia Castillo sought help after a case of tuberculosis destroyed part of her trachea -- the windpipe connected to the lungs & left her with breathing difficulties, prone to
infections and unable to care for her 2 children.
The researchers said: the 30 year old's only option other than the experimental surgery was for doctors to remove part of her lung -- a choice that would have seriously degraded her quality of life. After finding a donor, the researchers first depleted the transplanted trachea of the donor's cells and then obtained bone marrow stem cells from Castillo they grew into cartilage cells. Next, the team seeded these cells on the outside of the donor trachea using a device developed at Milan Polytechnic in Italy that incubated the cells. The researchers used the same device to make epithelial cells to construct the lining of the trachea. Finally, the team grafted a 5 cm (1.97 inch) piece of the trachea onto Castillo's damaged left main bronchus, which connects the main
windpipe to the left lung.
The researchers said: Castillo, who lives in Spain, had no complications from the surgery and left the hospital after 10 days. She is returning to normal activities and even called her doctors from a night club to say she had been out dancing all night.
Kangaroo genes close to humans
Kangaroo genes close to humans
Australian researchers said: kangaroos from Australia are genetically similar to humans. Scientists said they had for the 1st time mapped the genetic code& found much of it was similar to the genome for humans.
Centre Director Jenny Graves told in a report that: "There are a few differences, we have a few more of this, a few less of that, but they are the same genes and a lot of them are in the same order." "We thought they'd be completely scrambled, but they're not. There is great chunks of the
human genome which is sitting right there in the kangaroo genome," Graves said, according to AAP.
Humans and kangaroos last shared an ancestor at least 150 million years ago, the researchers found, while mice and humans diverged from one another only 70 million years ago.
"Kangaroos are hugely informative about what we were like 150 million years ago," Graves said.
Cigarette smoking may
Cigarette smoking may worsen premenstrual woes
Dr. Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and her colleagues found: Women who smoke twice in a day in the age of (25 to 45 years) are likely to increase premenstrual syndrome over the next 2 to 4 years, especially hormonally related symptoms like backaches, bloating, breast tenderness, and acne.
Bertone-Johnson said: "Our findings lend further support to the idea that smoking increases the risk of moderate to severe PMS and provides another reason for women, especially adolescents and young women, not to smoke."
Up to 20% of women have PMS severe that effect their relationships as well as interfere with their normal activities. Smoking affect at all levels of several different hormones.
To investigate the relationship further, they analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which has been following 116,678 US registered nurses since 1989. The researchers looked at a subset of women who were PMS-free during the first two years of the study, comparing 1,057 who did go on to develop PMS to 1,968 who did not. The researchers found: the women who were current smokers were 2.1 times as likely as non-smokers to report PMS within the next 2 to 4 years. The risk increased with the amount they smoked, and women who had picked up the habit in adolescence or young adulthood were at even greater risk; those who had begun smoking before their 15th birthday, for example, were 2.53 times as likely to develop PMS.
A 2005 study found that 26% of female 12th-graders had smoked on at least one of the previous 30 days, Bertone-Johnson and her team note in their report. "Given the high prevalence of this behavior in young women," they say, "these findings may provide additional incentive for young women to avoid cigarette smoking."
Cigarette smoking may
Cigarette smoking may worsen premenstrual woes
Dr. Elizabeth R. Bertone-Johnson of the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and her colleagues found: Women who smoke twice in a day in the age of (25 to 45 years) are likely to increase premenstrual syndrome over the next 2 to 4 years, especially hormonally related symptoms like backaches, bloating, breast tenderness, and acne.
Bertone-Johnson said: "Our findings lend further support to the idea that smoking increases the risk of moderate to severe PMS and provides another reason for women, especially adolescents and young women, not to smoke."
Up to 20% of women have PMS severe that effect their relationships as well as interfere with their normal activities. Smoking affect at all levels of several different hormones.
To investigate the relationship further, they analyzed data from the Nurses' Health Study II, which has been following 116,678 US registered nurses since 1989. The researchers looked at a subset of women who were PMS-free during the first two years of the study, comparing 1,057 who did go on to develop PMS to 1,968 who did not. The researchers found: the women who were current smokers were 2.1 times as likely as non-smokers to report PMS within the next 2 to 4 years. The risk increased with the amount they smoked, and women who had picked up the habit in adolescence or young adulthood were at even greater risk; those who had begun smoking before their 15th birthday, for example, were 2.53 times as likely to develop PMS.
A 2005 study found that 26% of female 12th-graders had smoked on at least one of the previous 30 days, Bertone-Johnson and her team note in their report. "Given the high prevalence of this behavior in young women," they say, "these findings may provide additional incentive for young women to avoid cigarette smoking."
Astronauts inspect
Astronauts inspect space shuttle on way to station
The shuttle Endeavour crew scanned the ship's wings checking for damage after Friday's launch as it headed for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. The inspections, done with a sensor-laden boom attached to the shuttle's robot arm, have been standard since the 2003 Columbia disaster, when debris from the shuttle's external fuel tank knocked a hole in its wing, causing the craft to disintegrate as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts aboard were killed. Engineers thought they saw a 12-to-18-inch strip of insulation fly off from the rear of Endeavour, but images relayed by the astronauts on Saturday appeared to show nothing amiss.
NASA was still assessing a flyaway object spotted in video of the shuttle's liftoff. The issue was considered minor, as was a glitch with one of the shuttle's communications antennas. The shuttle, which rocketed off its seaside launch pad in Florida on Friday night, was on schedule to slip into a berthing port at the space station at 5:04 p.m. EST (2204 GMT) on Sunday to begin an 11-
or 12-day stay.
Astronaut Sandra Magnus will swap places with space station flight engineer Greg Chamitoff, who has been aboard the outpost since June. The shuttle also carries more than 7 tonnes of gear for the station, including equipment needed to expand the number of full-time residents to six from three. The shuttle carries two new sleeping compartments and a water recycling system so station crew members can purify urine and other wastewater for drinking.
Last year, spacewalking astronauts discovered contamination inside a rotary joint that pivots the panels so they can track the sun for power. NASA locked the joint in place to prevent further deterioration. Astronauts will attempt to clean up the joint and replace suspect bearings. They also will be doing maintenance on the station's second rotary joint. The space station, a $100
billion project of 16 member nations that orbits 220 miles above Earth, has been under construction for 10 years. NASA plans nine more assembly and resupply missions to the outpost after Endeavour's before the space shuttles are retired in 2010, leaving crew transport services for the Russians to handle with their Soyuz capsules. NASA hopes to hire a commercial launch services firm in the United States for station cargo deliveries. A contract award is expected by
January.
