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Missouri Senate Approves Additional Requirements To Informed Consent Law For Abortion
The Missouri Senate on Thursday voted 25-7 to approve a bill (SB 264) that would add additional requirements to the state"s existing informed consent law for women seeking abortion, the AP/Newark Star-Ledger reports.The measure would require physicians to hold in-person meetings with women seeking abortion 24 hours before the scheduled procedure to inform them about the physical and psychological risks and the physical development of their fetuses. The existing informed consent law allows physicians to provide this information by phone. Under the revised bill, health care providers also would be required to offer a woman the option to view ultrasound images of the fetus and to listen to the fetus" heartbeat. Providers also would be required to tell women who are at least 22 weeks pregnant that their fetuses have the ability to feel pain and offer fetal anesthesia. The new measure would exempt the Planned Parenthood clinic in Columbia, Mo., one of two in the state that perform abortions, from the requirements until August 2012.Susan Klein of Missouri Right to Life said, "This bill just makes sure the woman is fully informed about what she is about to decide that will affect her for the rest of her life." The bill was sponsored by state Sen. Rob Mayer (R) and now heads to the House for consideration and a vote. If the House approves the bill before 6 p.m. on Friday, when the Legislature concludes its 2009 session, it will go to Gov. Jay Nixon (D) for his consideration. During his campaign last year, Nixon said he supported Missouri"s existing abortion laws without changes but declined to say whether he would veto bills containing additional restrictions the AP/Star-Ledger reports (Blank, AP/Newark Star-Ledger, 5/14).

No More Test Tubes On Four Feet? EPA Moves Toward Animal-free Toxicity Tests
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to switch to a new generation of animal-free tests for predicting the toxicity of chemicals to humans, according to an article scheduled for the June 22 issue of Chemical & Engineering News, ACS" weekly newsmagazine.
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COAG Should Maintain Focus On Improving Indigenous Health, Australia
Tomorrow"s Council of Australian Governments (COAG) meeting is a crucial opportunity to focus on achieving concrete long-term health improvements for Indigenous people, the AMA said.
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"Jumping Gene" Diminishes The Effect Of A New Type 2 Diabetes Risk Gene

Research led by the German Institute of Human Nutrition (DIfE) has identified a new gene associated with diabetes, together with a mechanism that makes obese mice less susceptible to diabetes. A genomic fragment that occurs naturally in some mouse strains diminishes the activity of the risk gene Zfp69. The researchers also found that the corresponding human gene (ZNF642) is especially active in overweight individuals with diabetes. The results of the study, which also involved scientists from the University of Leipzig and the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg, are published July 3 in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), around 1.6 billion people are overweight worldwide. The number of people with type 2 diabetes has increased accordingly to 230 million. The risk of developing type 2 diabetes is approximately 50% hereditary, but is also dependent on nutrition and lifestyle factors. In the present study, the researchers compared the genomes of different mouse strains. Some mouse strains were obese but had no strikingly elevated blood glucose levels and were less susceptible to diabetes. Other strains developed a severe malfunction of fat and glucose metabolism as they continued to gain weight, causing these mice to rapidly develop type 2 diabetes. According to the study, this difference is due to a small fragment of genetic information: a so-called "jumping gene" or "transposon" of viral origin, localized in a non-coding segment of the gene Zfp69, whose effect it diminishes. Without this genetic fragment, the risk gene is fully active and, in combination with obesity, leads to high blood sugar levels and malfunction of fat metabolism. The gene is also active in the fat tissues of overweight people suffering from diabetes more so than in healthy individuals. "Our data suggest that the protein product of the risk gene in obese individuals enhances the storage of fat in fat cells. As a result, excessive fat accumulates in the liver and this in turn contributes to the development of diabetes," explains Stephan Scherneck, first author of the study. "We have therefore discovered a new diabetes gene of similar importance in mice and humans," says Hans-Georg Joost, head of the study and scientific director of DIfE, "as well as a mechanism that has not been described before in connection with the heredity of diabetes and obesity." These data show the importance of studying in detail not only genes themselves but also transposons in their vicinity. Joost continued, "This transposon is quite active and almost completely "turns off" the Zfp69 gene. We have found indications that it is also active in other mouse genes. Since the human genome is full of such fragments, it is quite possible that they play a greater role than previously assumed." German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke


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