A researcher at a Swedish medical university, Karolinska Institutet, has studied the effect of a high fat, sugar and cholesterol diet on the brains of mice. Susanne Akterin’s doctoral thesis, “From Cholesterol to Oxidative Stress in Alzheimer’s Disease: A Wide Perspective on a Multifactorial Disease,” shows that mice fed a diet equivalent to the nutritional content of most fast food developed brain abnormalities similar to those seen in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. While she finds the results promising by suggesting how Alzheimer’s could be prevented, Akterin also noted that “more research in this field needs to be done before proper advice can be passed on to the general public.” Epidemiological studies have apparently shown that high cholesterol levels and lack of antioxidants may render people more susceptible to the development of the disease, so Akterin designed her research to find a mechanism that could explain these findings.
Category Archives Scientific/Technical Items
A University of Arizona scientist has reportedly warned the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that more than 40 percent of prepackaged meats sampled in 2006 tested positive for Clostridium difficile, an intestinal bug usually associated with hospitals and nursing homes. In addition, Professor of Veterinary Science J. Glenn Songer apparently found that 30 percent of the contaminated meats carried a highly toxic strain of C. difficile that is also resistant to drug treatments. He warned that not only is this disease difficult to trace to its source, but it survives most forms of sterilization, including cooking. “These data suggest that domestic animals, by way of retail meats, may be a source for C. difficile for human infection,” Songer told MSNBC.com, which reported on the emergence of the superbug in supermarket products like ground beef, turkey and ready-to-eat summer sausage. Yet, “There are no documented cases of people getting Clostridium…
A study commissioned by the Austrian Ministries for Agriculture and Health has reportedly linked genetically modified crops to lower fertility rates in mice, prompting Greenpeace International to reiterate its call for a global ban. Led by University of Vienna Professor of Veterinary Medicine Jurgen Zentek, researchers concluded that compared to mice on a normal feed mix, those fed a diet of 33 percent GM corn produced third and fourth litters with fewer offspring of lower birth weights. The team described the results as “statistically significant,” adding that more females in the GM-diet group “remained without litters than in the control group.” In response to the finding, one Greenpeace scientist told the Daily Mail that GM food “appears to be acting as a birth-control agent, potentially leading to infertility. If this is not reason enough to close down the whole biotech industry once and for all, I am not sure what…
A recent study explores the claim that rats fed a high-fat diet (HFD) during pregnancy produce offspring predisposed to overeating and obesity. Guo-Qing Chang, et al., “Maternal High-Fat Diet and Fetal Programming: Increased Proliferation of Hypothalamic Peptide-Producing Neurons That Increase Risk for Overeating and Obesity,” Journal of Neuroscience, November 2008. The Rockefeller University researchers examined the possibility that an HFD “alters the development” in utero of “hypothalamic peptides involved in controlling food intake and body weight.” Compared with the progeny of mothers fed a balanced diet, fetuses exposed to an HFD showed alterations in their hypothalamic peptide-producing neurons that could lead to the “long-term behavioral land physiological changes observed in offspring after weaning, including an increase in food intake, preference for fat, hyperlipidemia, and higher body weight.” While some scientists warned that the animal study involved an unnatural diet, others thought the evidence lent credence to the belief that maternal diets…
Economists with the National Bureau of Economic Research have published a study that examines data compiled between 1979 and 1997 to “estimate the effects of TV fast-food restaurant advertising on children and adolescents with respect to being overweight.” Shin-Yi Chou, et al., “FastFood Restaurant Advertising on Television and Its Influence on Childhood Obesity.” The Journal of Law and Economics, November 2008. They conclude that a ban on these advertisements “would reduce the number of overweight children ages 3-11 in a fixed population by 18 percent and would reduce the number of overweight adolescents ages 12-18 by 14 percent.” The researchers used a statistical model to analyze data on some 13, 000 children to link obesity rates to the amount of time children spent watching fast-food advertising on television. In recent years, a number of fast-food chains and food manufacturers have joined the Council of Better Business Bureaus’ Children’s Food and Beverage…
Researchers at the University of Hawaii have tested 160 fast-food products purchased from outlets throughout the United States and reportedly found that “not 1 item could be traced back to a noncorn source.” A. Hope Jahren & Rebecca A. Kraft, “Carbon and Nitrogen Stable Isotopes in Fast Food: Signatures of Corn and Confinement,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, November 18, 2008. According to the researchers, “Ingredients matter for many reasons: U.S. corn agriculture has been criticized as environmentally unsustainable and conspicuously subsidized.” Sampling the ratios of different isotopes of carbon and nitrogen in the meat and chicken samples tested, the researchers were able to determine what the animals were fed and the level of fertilizer used on the feed crops. They also found that higher levels of nitrogen isotope in the meat, from the ammonia emitted in their manure, could be linked to meat coming from animals raised in confined conditions.
The International Council on Nanotechnology (ICON) has announced the launch of a database analysis tool that enables nanotechnology research comparisons. The tool is used in conjunction with ICON’s database of citations to peer-reviewed publications addressing the environmental, health and safety impacts of nanomaterials. According to ICON Director Kristen Kulinowski, “In addition to returning a list of abstracts that meet the criteria chosen by the user, the database now allows the user to analyze research trends across time and by category.” The comparisons are presented as pie charts and bar graphs. Intended users are researchers at universities, non-governmental organizations, government, and industry worldwide. They will be able to (i) “Compare categories within a specific time range, e.g., selecting papers published between 2000-2007 and requesting the number that studied nanoscale carbons, oxides, metals and semiconductors”; (ii) “Track the progression of publications in a given category by month or year, e.g., plotting the number…
According to news sources, scientists attending the American Heart Association conference in New Orleans released the results of several studies including one showing that the artery walls of children who are obese or have high cholesterol are as thick as those of adults who are 30 years older. Led by Geetha Raghuveer, a cardiologist and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, this small study of 70 children used ultrasound to measure artery wall thickness. While no one apparently knows how thick a 10-year-old’s blood vessels should be, the researchers reportedly used tables for 45-year-olds and found the thickness comparable. Other research presented during the conference showed that 991 obese Australian children had a greater enlargement of their hearts and that 150 Australian children with a higher body-mass index had left ventricles that were slower to untwist in the heart pumping process, thus impairing the…
Researchers in Canada have published a warning in Science about the leaching of bioactive contaminants from disposable laboratory plastic ware such as test tubes, pipette tips and culture plates. They demonstrated that some lubricating, or slip, agents (“exemplified by oleamide”) and cationic biocides (DiHEMDA) used in manufacturing the plastics “leach from laboratory plasticware into a standard aqueous buffer, dimethyl sulfoxide, and methanol and can have profound effects on proteins and thus on results from biossays of protein function.” These agents are apparently used in products from yogurt containers to clothing. Biochemistry Professor Andrew Holt, who was apparently studying how an enzyme that plays a role in Parkinson’s disease is affected by different compounds, found widely and inexplicably varying results that were ultimately traced to the polypropylene tubes used to prepare the solutions. His team reportedly found a clear correlation between the particular test tubes used and their unusual results. According to…
Cornell University researchers have reportedly developed a nanoscale application that could lead to rapid testing for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service (CSREES), which partly funded the project, recently highlighted the National Research Initiative (NRI) as a step toward improving the safety of the food supply. “A better method of prion detection is necessary to allay public fears, ensure the safety of the nation’s food supply, and enhance international trade,” stated a CSREES press release. The preliminary testing device is based on a nanotechnology device known as a resonator created by Harold Craighead and his colleagues at Cornell University in conjunction with Richard Montagna at Innovative Biotechnologies International, Inc. “When prions bind to the resonator’s silicon sensor, it changes the vibrational resonant frequency of the device,” according to CSREES. This sensor is able to detect prions in saline solution “at…
