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Quantification Of Perfusion & Permeability In Prostate Using Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced MRI With Inversion-Prepared Dual-Contrast Sequence
UroToday.com - The dynamic contrast-enhanced dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging (DCE-DSC-MRI) technique presented in the article(1) is based on a novel dual-contrast sequence. The sequence is a gradient echo sequence that uses a single inversion pulse and subsequent acquisition of two contrasts/echoes with different inversion and echo times. Inversion preparation increases the signal-to-noise ratio in comparison to other gradient echo sequences. The blood volume in the prostate is relatively small, i.e., approximately one percent, while the interstitial contrast-agent-enhancing volume is approximately 20 percent. Therefore, conventional imaging sequences fail to separate the low contrast agent signal originating from the blood from that originating from interstitial tissue. The first contrast/echo is acquired with a short echo time and is T1-weighted, allowing quantification of the total signal contribution while failing to separate the blood signal from the interstitial contrast agent signal.
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More To Second Life Than Just Sex
Researchers at the University of Toronto and the University Health Network"s Centre for Innovation in Complex Care (CICC) have found that a wide array of health-related activity occurs in the 3 dimensional virtual world of Second Life. Second Life is free for users with basic accounts, and reported over 16 million registered users worldwide in 2008. The web-based platform, which is often associated with pornography and "cheating" spouses, is also used to educate people about illness, train physicians, nurses and medical students with virtual simulations, enable disease-specific support and discussion groups, fundraise real-life dollars for medical research, and to conduct research.
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Study Rewrites Textbook On Key Genetic Phenomenon
Because females carry two copies of the X chromosome to males" one X and one Y, they harbor a potentially toxic double dose of the over 1000 genes that reside on the X chromosome.
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Yale Researchers Suggests Gene Inhibition May Help Normalize Type 2 Diabetes

In research that could lead to new approaches for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, a Yale School of Medicine team has found that suppressing a liver enzyme that induces glucose production helped diminish the symptoms of the disease in a rat model - reducing blood glucose concentrations, decreasing rates of glucose production in the liver, and improving insulin sensitivity. Decreasing expression of the gene, Sirtuin 1, also lowered total cholesterol levels. The research appears in the June 15-19 Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Type 2 diabetes is characterized by high blood glucose concentrations and insulin resistance, which play a major factor in causing the disease. In the U.S., rates of type 2 diabetes have doubled since 1990, and the Centers for Disease Control calls the disease an epidemic. Formerly known as "adult-onset diabetes," the disorder is increasingly diagnosed in children. The Yale researchers put the rats on a four-week diet of fructose and high-fat meals to create a metabolic condition that mimics type 2 diabetes. At the same time, they inhibited expression of the Sirtiun 1 gene through injection of an antisense oligonucleotide (short fragments of nucleic acid that inactivate gene expression) specifically targeted to that gene. "Blood glucose levels in the rats came down close to normal, as did their ability to regulate blood glucose levels with insulin," said first author Derek Erion, a graduate student in cellular and molecular physiology at Yale. The authors believe the falling plasma cholesterol levels that also resulted may be attributed to increased cholesterol uptake and export from the liver, due to suppression of key enzymes involved in cholesterol metabolism. Senior author Gerald Shulman, MD, said the results indicate that inhibiting Sirtuin 1 in the liver may be an attractive approach for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. "With this disorder, diet and exercise only get you so far," he said. "Many patients may need drug intervention to avoid suffering the debilitating effects of type 2 diabetes." Shulman is the George R. Cowgill Professor of Physiological Chemistry, Medicine and Cellular and Molecular Physiology at Yale and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. Other authors include: Shin Yonemitsu, Yoshio Nagai and Matthew P. Gillum of the Yale School of Medicine and Howard Hughes Medical Institute; Jennifer J. Hsiao, Takanori Iwasaki, Romana Stark, Dirk Weismann, Varman T. Samuel, Tamas. L. Horvath and Qian Gao of Yale School of Medicine; Xing Xian Yu, Susan F. Murray, Sanjay Bhanot and Brett P. Monia of Isis Pharmaceuticals in Carlsbad, CA. The work above was funded in part by the Yale Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) grant from the National Center for Research Res at the National Institutes of Health. Yale University


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