Cells

Men whose blood contains large blood-clotting cells are more likely to suffer a second heart attack, according to a finding that could help develop more effective drugs to prevent heart disease, British researchers report in the Lancet, a medical journal.The findings also lend more support to low-dose aspirin therapy, because aspirin affects platelets.

For the first time, living cells from humans have been transplanted successfully into mice, scientists reported yesterday, suggesting that it may become possible to do the opposite, using animal organs to cure human diseases.By treating the human cells, "masking" them from the mouse's immune system, Dr. Denise Faustman said, she and colleagues at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston were able to implant the cells without rejection and without using drugs to suppress the rodents' normal immunity.

WASHINGTON -- Discovery of a way to activate stalled molecular water pumps inside human cells "opens the way" to arresting the course of cystic fibrosis, one of the most common fatal genetic diseases in America, government health officials said yesterday.With luck, a drug to treat cystic fibrosis based on that discovery could be at the testing stage within a year, said Dr. Michael R. Knowles, one of three University of North Carolina medical school researchers who announced the finding.The basic defect is the inability of the cells to maintain sufficient water to thin mucus in the lungs, he said.

It is welcome news that the major Maryland gubernatorial candidates for the 2006 election, including incumbent Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., plan to support embryonic stem-cell research. Though legislation to provide public funding for stem-cell research stalled in the State House last session, Governor Ehrlich is preparing to endorse this research with a new proposal. But the details of his and other candidates' proposals should be carefully scrutinized to ensure that they truly support the potential of our state to be a leader in this emerging field of medical research and biotechnology.

A former National Institutes of Health scientist found in an unusual court case to have intentionally killed genetically engineered living cells out of apparent jealousy toward a colleague has been ordered to pay damages to the federal government.The decision by U.S. District Court Judge Peter Messitte was hailed yesterday by the U.S. attorney's office for Maryland as an important step in a relatively new area of law -- the development of genetically engineered organisms."The case is highly unusual in that it is one of the first to address the legal question of whether genetically engineered living cells are property protected from intentional harm by federal law," the U.S. attorney's office said.

Why do we have sex? It's a dumb question for most people, perhaps, but a frustratingly difficult one for evolutionary biologists. After all, sex is a time-consuming, exhausting, and genetically risky affair, and yet most animals and plants, from dogs to dogwoods, do it. Thanks to the sex lives of yeast cells - or lack thereof - scientists may have a better answer for why sexual reproduction arrived so early in our evolutionary past and pays off so...

Taking the next step in a series of breakthrough stem-cell experiments, scientists have cured sickle- cell anemia in mice by rewinding their skin cells to an embryonic state and manipulating them to create healthy, genetically matched replacement tissue. After the repaired cells were transfused into the animals, they soon began producing healthy blood cells free of the crippling deformities that deprive organs of oxygen, scientists from the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research in Cambridge, Mass.

MOSCOW -- The men who challenged Boris N. Yeltsin for the rule of Russia spent yesterday in solitary confinement, dining on a first course of cabbage soup and a second of herring and potatoes.Parliament Chairman Ruslan I. Khasbulatov, Vice President Alexander Rutskoi and their four-member "Cabinet" are being held in Lefortovo Prison, built in 1880 and once a symbol of Soviet secret police (KGB) terror.One of the Cabinet members -- Viktor Barranikov -- was until a few months ago Mr. Yeltsin's KGB chief.

IN A NEW study, California scientists have identified the first direct link between emotional stress and cellular changes associated with premature aging. Widely praised by other researchers, the study reinforces the popular belief that emotional stress may have serious medical consequences. It is also consistent with the idea that stress-reducing practices such as yoga, meditation, jogging or any version of the "relaxation response" may reduce the risk of certain diseases. But before you stress out about the ill effects of stress, a few cautions.

The interpreter was talking about 75 years of Soviet abuse when they came to the cells. This is where they kept the political prisoners, she said, and then she motioned for Sue Sadowski to go in.''Don't panic,'' said the interpreter, whose name was Elena Dragunova. ''I'm going to close the door behind you. I want you to get a sense of what it felt like.''The cell was small and airless. Across the street was the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, where Peter the Great is buried. The irony was not lost on Sadowski: In the shadow of a church was this armory where dissidents were routinely locked away, many for the simple crime of expressing an idea.