Timing and regularity of sleep may be key for adolescent heart health

There is a truth universally acknowledged that kids need sleep, a lot of sleep. Yet, most adolescents fall short of the eight-to-ten hours of shut-eye recommended by the National Sleep Foundation. However, the total amount of sleep isn’t the only thing that matters for adolescent health and development. Late nights and erratic sleep schedules can impact young people’s heart health in later life, according to a team led by researchers from Penn State College of Medicine.

Biomarker panel offers hope for early pancreatic cancer detection

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the worst prognosis cancer globally, with just 13% of patients who are diagnosed with PC surviving for 5 years or more after initial diagnosis. In Ireland, there are approximately 900 cases of PC per year, and 820 PC-related deaths. Early detection of PC is the primary concern of most PC research, as it has the potential to make a substantial difference to the treatment and survival of patients.

Alzheimer’s brain inflammation: Immune cells react differently to amyloid-beta, research suggests

Brain inflammation, while a crucial part of the body’s immune response, takes on a detrimental role in Alzheimer’s disease. Unlike the acute, short-lived inflammation that combats infection, the inflammation associated with Alzheimer’s becomes chronic and persistent. Scientists have been trying to understand why this happens.

Cellular ‘scaffold’ enables myoblast implants on healthy muscle to advance regenerative medicine

Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have developed a way to treat age-related muscular atrophy using regenerative medicine. Conventional methods to implant myoblasts, precursors to muscle fiber, require prior scarring for the new cells to graft properly. By adding extracellular matrix (ECM) fluid into the implant, the team successfully grafted myoblasts onto healthy muscle in mice. Their technique opens the way for using implantation to treat unscarred muscle atrophied by aging.