Recent Mummy Findings Not a Guideline For Your Diet

It seems like every month a new diet or "super-food" is being pushed by the media. Usually the logic behind these diets is rooted in some type of pseudoscience, or a very liberal interpretation of a newly published article.  Recently nutrition, health, and fitness news outlets are all offering their own spin on a newly-published study involving heart disease in mummies.

In the study, researchers performed whole-body CT scans on 137 mummies from four ancient populations – Egyptian, Peruvian, Puebloan (southwest America), and Unangan (Aleutian Islands). They analyzed the images for signs of atherosclerosis, or hardening of artery walls due to buildup of cholesterol and fatty-acid laden plaque. This was evidenced by the presence of calcified plaque on the mummies’ artery walls, or if a given artery was not persevered through the years, along the path where it was expected to run. Interestingly, atherosclerosis was found in 34% of 137 mummies: (38%) of 76 ancient Egyptians, 13 (25%) of 51 ancient Peruvians, two (40%) of five Ancestral Puebloans, and three (60%) of five Unangans.

                

Atherosclerosis has been estimated to affect up to 35% of modern Americans. Wait a minute… So even with our modern diet, full of the countless flaws nutritionists would love to tell you about, our arteries are just as bad as the ancients? As much as I would enjoy telling members of the so called “Paleo cult” that their lifestyle changes have all been in vain, I don’t think we have close to enough information to exonerate the modern diet.  

               

I don’t think the 34% vs 35% figure tells us as much about the relationship between diet and atherosclerosis as some nutritionists and health enthusiasts would like to believe. Instead, it merely points to our incomplete understanding of the causes of plaque-buildup and how it relates to aging and other factors. For example, studies have shown that frequent infection, as well as stress, can lead to increased atherosclerosis. Ancient people obviously had a harder time dealing with infection without modern drugs and medical knowledge. The role of smoke inhalation needs to be addressed too; it's noted in the article that many of the non-Egyptian mummies were exposed to high levels of smoke from non-ventilated cooking fires, a prominent risk-factor in developing atherosclerosis (which is present in the modern world in the form of cigarettes).

               

 In other words, don’t throw out your vegetables and park yourself on the sofa just yet. Although this study has given us new insight towards the development and history of heart-threatening atherosclerosis, it’s not quite the nutritional “get out of jail free” card that many sources are making it out to be. 

Credit for picture:

Mummy: Jose and Roxanne 

Joseph Starrett (3)

Food-Lovers Listen Up!

http://www.visembryo.com/story1395.html

          As we all may be well aware of by now obesity is quickly becoming a dangerous trend among the greater population of the United States. We have always been told that being physically active and eating healthy would be the key to physical health, however, regardless of how simple being physically fit sounds, the United States still finds itself battling rapid increases in obesity. So, now science may be coming to the rescue and may hold the key to sequestering this growing trend. Recently, researchers have discovered a gene that when deleted prevents obesity in mice on high fat diets, which now researchers are hoping can be replicated in humans to decrease these rates of obesity. Don’t you wish you could eat anything you wanted and not have to worry about the calories or where on your body that food will go?

            So, food-lovers listen up…you may finally be able to enjoy all the food in the world without dreading gaining a few pounds. Research lead by Prof. James McManaman, Ph.D., vice-chairman of research for Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, has discovered a gene, Plin2, which produces a protein that regulates fat storage and metabolism in mice and humans that when deleted prevents mice from being obese, even when placed on a high fat diet. Numerous advantages have been revealed with the deletion of this gene, firstly, mice without the gene ate less and were more active, secondly, fatty liver disease usually related to obesity and commonly found in humans and rodents was undetected, among others. This study has also found that without the presence of the gene, fat can be metabolized faster, which is something many of us humans struggle with, from dieting to supplements to help increase our metabolizes, deletion of this gene may be the answer to our problems.

            This type of research could open so many doors into how to control rates of obesity nationwide and could ultimately help make the U.S. healthier as a nation. Since this deletion has shown that mice become more active and eat less, maybe the same thing would happen for humans and we could actually become physically fit, with a little help from science! From this article the only questions that really came to mind is how this gene deletion would affect human physiology and whether deleting the gene would cause some sort of adverse affects on other parts of our intricate system? It obviously seems as though much more research must be done before this can come close to being tested on humans, but it sure does sound promising!

Posted by Gabrielle Wertheim (3)

Gender Bending

This article talks about different ways in which bizarre sex strategies occur within different types of species. It’s typical that a female would carry the eggs and the male species would donate the sperm, but according to recent study, the exact opposite is happening. Scientists have found that in certain species, the male is caring for the offspring during and after reproduction.

In male pipefish, the males actually pick their mates based on size. The larger the female, the more likely he’ll want to mate with her. This occurs because the male pipefish is looking to create stronger offspring and the size of the female fish could potentially mean more successful fertilization and reproduction. Once he finds the right sized mate, the female pipefish will transfer her eggs into a special pouch in the male pipefish and wait for fertilization and reproduction to occur.

To prove that males prefer a larger mate, scientists mated a male pipefish with both a small and large female pipefish. The results were uncanny. Not only did the male fish carry more eggs when mating with a large female, but also the care taken for those offspring was much greater. The survival rate of the unborn offspring from the large female pipefish was higher than those that came from the small female pipefish. The evidence shows that males favor the eggs of the larger female and pay better attention to their care during fertilization and maturation.

Scientists believe that these male pipefish base their reproduction off of their own chance of survival. It’s believed that the male pipefish have a higher chance of nourishment and survival from a larger brood of fish versus a small brood. When the fish carry the small female’s eggs, they are spending their resources on making them stronger instead of spending the resources on themselves. Interesting, huh?

Kimberly Ty (3)

Edited my blog (2nd paragraph)

Increasing Neuroplasticity Through Gene Knockout

            

            If you ever noticed how much more difficult it is to learn a new language as you age, you can realize how less adaptive the brain become as you get older. Adults have a more difficult time learning new concepts than children do because children's brains are more flexible. The Nogo Receptor 1 gene has been shown to lead to the maturation of the brain, decreasing its neuroplasticity. With this gene identified, scientists wanted to see if the adult brain in mice can change back to the more plastic brain function of adolescent mice through gene knockout. When researchers blocked this gene in aging mice, they noticed that these mutated mice continued to have juvenile brain function even into adulthood. Even more interesting is that adult mice that had this gene blocked had their rigid adult brain revert back to a more malleable juvenile brain.

            The inhibition of the Nogo Receptor 1 gene can have some potential human applications including overcoming traumatic experiences, recovering from brain damage, and having better learning abilities. People who suffer from brain injuries like stroke most go through rehabilitation to redevelop certain movement skills. Brain-injured mice that had this gene blocked were able to learn motor tasks faster than wild type mice. This indicates that stroke patients could potentially have quicker rehab times if the gene is blocked in humans.

Another interesting discovery was that Nogo receptors lead to slower memory loss. Mice that had this gene blocked had a faster ability to forget stressful memories. This discovery could potentially help people with post-traumatic stress disorder because it could help sufferers get past traumatic events. The only question that I had was how would the inhibition of the Nogo Receptor 1 gene affect personalities in humans?

Posted by Poya Jafari (2)

SEX DIFFERENCES in the GUT MICROBIOME DRIVE HORMONE-DEPENDENT REGULATION of AUTOIMMUNITY

 

Usually one is told to abstain from germs, however exposure to some germs and awareness of what one is at risk for depending on their sex can help them identify their resistance to Type 1 Diabetes. An individual’s susceptibility to autoimmune disease is caused both by environmental and genetic factors, but what is it about germs and whether one is a male or female that influences an individual’s susceptibility to autoimmunity? Is it safer to live in a germ- free environment or a non- germ- free environment? Do bacteria pose a mutualistic effect on a host metabolism?

According to a recent article, it has been shown that being a female and living in a germ- free environment increases ones chances of obtaining Type 1 diabetes.  Several tests were performed that proved this.  These tests show that because females have a different microbiome, they are more likely to get diabetes than a male.  Furthermore, having a higher level of testosterone leads to a diminished likelihood of obtaining diabetes.

These tests are important because they help patients and doctors determine how great of a risk the patient is for diabetes and therefore having a plan implemented to prevent or treat the disease. Additionally, doctors and patients need to be aware in the early stages of life about this possibility because early- life exposure to microbiota determines levels of sex hormone which therefore effect one’s ability to protect against diabetes. Thanks to the current testing and research we can better regulate the fate of individuals with high genetic risk.

 

Posted by Marshall Moini (2) 

Amps and Neurotransmitters: The Story of Kiss and Run Exocytosis

    

            If you wanted to study the kinetics of neurotransmitter release at neuronal synapses, how would you do it? There has been a traditional answer to this question in the research community. Stick a recording electrode in the post-synaptic neuron, stimulate the pre-synaptic one with another electrode, and record the electrical response of the post-synaptic cell. However, indirect approaches like this limit our ability to detect what is really going on in pre-synaptic active zones. An innovative electrophysiological technique can address this problem. It’s known as amperometry, and this is how it works. Say you want to study the release of dopamine from neurons. Place a carbon fiber electrode in solution just over the pre-synaptic active zone. Then, generate a voltage of +700mV in the electrode. This is a high enough voltage to oxidize dopamine molecules that come into contact with the electrode, and thus generate a current in the electrode. The magnitude of this current is therefore proportional to the amount of dopamine released. This allows for direct recording of the amount of dopamine released from synapses over time in response to stimulation.  Amperometry has enabled a team of scientists at Columbia University to shed light on the nature of the synaptic release of dopamine.

            If you are already familiar with the basics of synaptic transmission, you know that depolarization of pre-synaptic cells causes the release of neurotransmitter via fusion of synaptic vesicles with the pre-synaptic membrane.  However, this fusion isn’t always complete. It is thought that often, especially with vesicles that contain small molecule neurotransmitters such as dopamine, vesicles may partially fuse with the membrane and then separate and close up again. Sometimes vesicles may repeat this partial fusion and dissociation, known as “kiss and run exocytosis”, several times in quick succession. Using amperometry, the researchers as Columbia were able to provide convincing evidence that this is the primary means of exocytosis in dopaminergic neurons.  Using neurons cultured in vitro, they recorded dopamine release in response to depolarization. Their recordings showed two distinct current patterns. Sometimes, single spikes of current were recorded, termed simple events by the researchers. Other times, they recorded repeated spikes of current, with the initial spike being comparable in amplitude to the single spike event, but the subsequent spikes always decreasing in amplitude over time. These were labeled complex events. The researchers interpreted these recordings as evidence of kiss and run exocytosis. The single spikes represented instances of single transient fusion of vesicles with the membrane. The compound spike patterns were thought to represent repeated fusion of the same vesicle with the membrane. The continual decrease in current would correspond to the slowly depleting dopamine stores in the vesicles as it continually fused and resealed, releasing more of its neurotransmitter with each fusion event.

 Figure: diagrams c and d represent current recordings of simple and complex events, respectively

            This study provides solid evidence of the prevalence of kiss and run exocytosis in dopaminergic neurons. The major limitation of these results is that these recordings were performed using cultured neurons in vitro. It will be interesting to see if these same results hold true for neurons in vivo. However, this study still lays the groundwork for uncovering the intricate details of vesicle fusion in neurons. Soon we may see if other types of neurons also use this pattern of release and to what extent, as well as what functional advantage it may convey to these neurons. 

Posted by Sean McDougall (2)

Tis the Season for Ticks!



 

 

 

Days are becoming longer, birds are starting to sing, and we will soon see tulips begin to sprout. With spring quickly approaching a less desirable time is upon us-tick season. If you are an outdoors person or own pets you know that these blood sucking parasites can be quite a nuisance. Annoying as they may be ticks also transfer illnesses such as Lyme disease.

Researchers from Tufts have identified a new tick-borne disease caused by the spirochete bacteria Borrelia miyamotoi.  The bacteria is less prevalent that the Lyme causing bacteria, with only one confirmed case in the U.S.  But Tufts research states that “B. miyamotoi may be an under recognized source of human disease, especially in regions such as the northeastern United States, where Lyme disease is prevalent”. Up until recently, there was little data or research directly linking the bacteria to human disease.     

If you tend to frequent the ticks habitat you may want to take extra precautions as warm weather approaches. Wear long sleeved shirts and pants, and avoid areas of high vegetation. Examine yourself after being outdoors in places ticks like to hide such as your armpit, bellybutton, behind the knees, and other tick loving areas of the body. Check pets before letting them loose in the house and treat them with a veterinarian approved tick preventative. Please remember- ticks will just sit and wait for a blood meal to come along!

 

Angeline Latsch (2)