(HealthDay News) -- Poor stem cell communication causes the slow, incomplete muscle healing associated with aging, a new study suggests.
Publishing in the Aug. 10 issue of the journal Science, researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine found an age-related decline in the lines of communication to the stem cells of muscles. The stem cells receive garbled messages about muscle repair, which leads to slower and poorer quality healing.
The Stanford team also identified a key player in this process, a protein called Wnt. It's believed to help in the maintenance and proliferation of stem cells in many tissues, but, in this case, Wnt appears to block proper communication to muscle stem cells.
"This was a total surprise. We had no idea that the Wnt signaling pathway would have a negative effect on stem cell function," senior author Dr. Thomas Rando, associate professor of neurology and neurological sciences, said in a prepared statement.
The finding could lead to new treatments for injuries in muscles and other tissues.
"Theoretically, given the number of ways to block Wnt and Wnt signaling, one could envision this becoming a therapeutic. You could potentially enhance the healing of aged tissues by reducing this effect of Wnt signaling on the resident stem cells," Rando said.
More information
The MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia has more about age-related changes in muscle, bones and joints.
Jumat, 10 Agustus 2007
Senin, 06 Agustus 2007
Many New Moms Feel 'Unready' at Hospital Discharge
(HealthDay News) -- About one in six new moms may not be ready to fully take care of their newborns at the time they're discharged from U.S. hospitals, new research suggests.
Reporting in the August issue of Pediatrics, researchers found that 17 percent of new mothers and infants were "unready" for the transition at the time of discharge. Eleven percent of mothers felt unready, while 5 percent of pediatricians felt mother-infant pairs were unready.
Just 1 percent of obstetricians felt the mother-infant pairs were unready.
"We wanted to address the lack of information regarding the postpartum decision-making process for healthy term newborns and its consequences during the neonatal period, after federal legislation that went in effect in 1998 established a minimum postpartum length of stay of 48 hours after vaginal deliveries and 96 hours after Caesarean deliveries, unless a mother and physician decide otherwise," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Henry Bernstein. He is chief of general academic pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, in Lebanon, N.H.
To do this, Bernstein and his colleagues got more than 450 practitioners from 112 sites around the country to recruit 4,300 mother-infant pairs. Mothers, obstetricians and pediatricians are considered key partners in decisions on when to leave the hospital after delivery.
The researchers found that, at the time of discharge, almost one in six mother-infant pairs was deemed unready. In most cases, it was the mother, rather than her doctors, who felt she and/or her infant was not yet prepared to go home.
The researchers identified eight factors that seemed to correlate with feeling unready, including a maternal history of chronic disease, first-time parenthood, inadequate prenatal care, delivering during non-routine hours, neonatal problems in the hospital, a limited number of in-hospital education classes, plans to breast-feed, and the mother's race -- black women were almost 40 percent more likely to feel unready to be discharged than whites, the study found.
"The data suggests that mothers and clinicians must make the decision jointly," said Bernstein. He added that, "To increase readiness, it's critical to emphasize personalized discharge plans for that infant and his or her family."
Additionally, Bernstein said the researchers found that the length of a hospital stay was not a determinant of readiness.
"This study shows that the time in the hospital is not the issue; education is a more important issue," said Dr. Robert Welch, chairman and program director of obstetrics and gynecology at St. John Health's Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich.
Welch pointed out that changes in society may have created this issue. In the past, when women came home from the hospital, a grandmother was often there to help out and teach newborn care.
"A lot of times now, moms are going home, and they're alone with the baby, and she may not have an appropriate support system in place, or day care if she's planning on going back to work," said Welch.
"From the time that they have the first inkling that they want to have a baby, women should start building a support system," he suggested.
Welch also believes that it might be a good idea for hospitals to provide more standardized postpartum education. Right now, individual centers design their own programs, and he said that what's included in those after-birth education programs can vary greatly from hospital to hospital.
Bernstein said his team is continuing its work to see if postpartum unreadiness had any effect on the newborns. Their next study will look at the health outcomes of these newborns at four weeks after hospital discharge.
And, he added, "We're hoping to come up with a score to be used at discharge, similar to the Apgar score just after birth, that can help clinicians predict who is ready and who is not ready, so appropriate postpartum supports or services can be put in place."
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more information on bringing baby home.
Reporting in the August issue of Pediatrics, researchers found that 17 percent of new mothers and infants were "unready" for the transition at the time of discharge. Eleven percent of mothers felt unready, while 5 percent of pediatricians felt mother-infant pairs were unready.
Just 1 percent of obstetricians felt the mother-infant pairs were unready.
"We wanted to address the lack of information regarding the postpartum decision-making process for healthy term newborns and its consequences during the neonatal period, after federal legislation that went in effect in 1998 established a minimum postpartum length of stay of 48 hours after vaginal deliveries and 96 hours after Caesarean deliveries, unless a mother and physician decide otherwise," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Henry Bernstein. He is chief of general academic pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Dartmouth, in Lebanon, N.H.
To do this, Bernstein and his colleagues got more than 450 practitioners from 112 sites around the country to recruit 4,300 mother-infant pairs. Mothers, obstetricians and pediatricians are considered key partners in decisions on when to leave the hospital after delivery.
The researchers found that, at the time of discharge, almost one in six mother-infant pairs was deemed unready. In most cases, it was the mother, rather than her doctors, who felt she and/or her infant was not yet prepared to go home.
The researchers identified eight factors that seemed to correlate with feeling unready, including a maternal history of chronic disease, first-time parenthood, inadequate prenatal care, delivering during non-routine hours, neonatal problems in the hospital, a limited number of in-hospital education classes, plans to breast-feed, and the mother's race -- black women were almost 40 percent more likely to feel unready to be discharged than whites, the study found.
"The data suggests that mothers and clinicians must make the decision jointly," said Bernstein. He added that, "To increase readiness, it's critical to emphasize personalized discharge plans for that infant and his or her family."
Additionally, Bernstein said the researchers found that the length of a hospital stay was not a determinant of readiness.
"This study shows that the time in the hospital is not the issue; education is a more important issue," said Dr. Robert Welch, chairman and program director of obstetrics and gynecology at St. John Health's Providence Hospital in Southfield, Mich.
Welch pointed out that changes in society may have created this issue. In the past, when women came home from the hospital, a grandmother was often there to help out and teach newborn care.
"A lot of times now, moms are going home, and they're alone with the baby, and she may not have an appropriate support system in place, or day care if she's planning on going back to work," said Welch.
"From the time that they have the first inkling that they want to have a baby, women should start building a support system," he suggested.
Welch also believes that it might be a good idea for hospitals to provide more standardized postpartum education. Right now, individual centers design their own programs, and he said that what's included in those after-birth education programs can vary greatly from hospital to hospital.
Bernstein said his team is continuing its work to see if postpartum unreadiness had any effect on the newborns. Their next study will look at the health outcomes of these newborns at four weeks after hospital discharge.
And, he added, "We're hoping to come up with a score to be used at discharge, similar to the Apgar score just after birth, that can help clinicians predict who is ready and who is not ready, so appropriate postpartum supports or services can be put in place."
More information
The Nemours Foundation has more information on bringing baby home.
Jumat, 03 Agustus 2007
Hostility Puts Men's Hearts at Risk
(HealthDay News) -- Ten years of frequent hostility and depression may harm men's immune systems and put them at risk for heart disease, a U.S. study found.These negative emotional states may also hike men's risks for related disorders such as type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure, according to research in the August issue of Brain, Behavior, and Immunity.
Angry men are more likely to have increased levels of C3, an immune system protein associated with chronic inflammation, say the researchers from Duke University.
"Hostile, depressed and angry people see the world around them in a different way, and sometimes they see it as them against the world," study co-author Edward Suarez said in a prepared statement. "That kind of lifestyle often leads to greater stress and possibly changes in the way the body functions that could lead to disease."
Other research has shown a relationship between elevated levels of C3 and chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The Duke team studied 313 male Vietnam veterans over a 10-year period. The men were part of a larger study on the effects of the wartime defoliant Agent Orange. All of the men underwent standard psychological testing to assess hostility, depression and anger. The researchers also tested the men's blood on three occasions between 1992 and 2002.
The researchers looked for changes in levels of C3 and C4, immune system proteins that are markers of inflammation, the body's response to injury or infection.
Men whose psychological screening showed the highest level of hostility, depressive symptoms and anger had a 7.1 percent increase in C3 levels, the investigators found, while men with low scores on the test showed no change in C3 or C4 over the decade. Levels of C4 did not change for either group.
The relationship between the psychological scores and C3 levels remained true even when the researchers looked for the possible effects of other risk factors. Smoking, age, race, alcohol use, body mass index and Agent Orange exposure had no influence on C3 levels.
The researchers noted that while the study does not point to psychological therapy as a means of preventing inflammation, finding ways to reduce anger and hostility couldn't hurt.
More information
To learn more about anger management, visit the American Psychological Association.
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