A House committee chairman wants to know whether a retired diplomat who helped lead an independent review of the attack against the U.S. in Benghazi, Libya, will agree to be interviewed by committee investigators.
Then CIA-Director David Petraeus objected to the final talking points the Obama administration used after the deadly assault on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, because he wanted to see more details revealed to the...
Tuesday, May 14 2013 6:33 PM EDT2013-05-14 22:33:38 GMT
A military drone, once mistaken for a UFO along DC highways back in June took flight Tuesday. The X-47Bdrone is the size of a fighter jet, and took off from the deck of an American aircraft carrier for the first time Tuesday in a test flight that could eventually open the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft from just about any place in the world.
A military drone, once mistaken for a UFO along DC highways back in June took flight Tuesday. The X-47Bdrone is the size of a fighter jet, and took off from the deck of an American aircraft carrier for the first time Tuesday in a test flight that could eventually open the way for the U.S. to launch unmanned aircraft from just about any place in the world.
Tuesday, May 7 2013 1:13 PM EDT2013-05-07 17:13:05 GMT
Certain types of antidepressants may put people at an increased risk for developing a deadly superbug infection, a new study suggested. Researchers from the University of Michigan revealed that individuals who suffer from depression and those taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine and fluoxetine had a much higher chance of contracting Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) – a life threatening infection that can cause severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. One of the most...
Certain types of antidepressants may put people at an increased risk for developing a deadly superbug infection, a new study suggested. Researchers from the University of Michigan revealed that individuals who suffer from depression and those taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine and fluoxetine had a much higher chance of contracting Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) – a life threatening infection that can cause severe diarrhea and inflammation of the colon. One of the most...
Tuesday, May 7 2013 12:33 PM EDT2013-05-07 16:33:25 GMT
Toasting with new friends just got a futuristic, and slightly creepy, upgrade. Budweiser recently unveiled the Buddy Cup, a pint glass with a built-in chip that connects to Facebook.
Toasting with new friends just got a futuristic, and slightly creepy, upgrade. Budweiser recently unveiled the Buddy Cup, a pint glass with a built-in chip that connects to Facebook.
Tuesday, May 7 2013 12:04 PM EDT2013-05-07 16:04:00 GMT
The nuns' habits didn't seem to be habitual garb for three young women so Colombian police asked them to step aside when they arrived on the Caribbean island of San Andres on a flight from Bogota. Police Capt. Oscar Davila says the three women appeared nervous, and the fabric didn't look right. The chief of the island's judicial police says more than four pounds of cocaine (two kilos) was strapped to the legs of each woman. Davila says all three broke into tears and launched into ...
The nuns' habits didn't seem to be habitual garb for three young women so Colombian police asked them to step aside when they arrived on the Caribbean island of San Andres on a flight from Bogota. Police Capt. Oscar Davila says the three women appeared nervous, and the fabric didn't look right. The chief of the island's judicial police says more than four pounds of cocaine (two kilos) was strapped to the legs of each woman. Davila says all three broke into tears and launched into ...
By Charles Choi / LiveScience -- Death will come for us all one day, but life will not fade from our bodies all at once. After our lungs stop breathing, our hearts stop beating, our minds stop racing, our bodies cool, and long after our vital signs cease, little pockets of cells can live for days, even weeks. Now scientists have harvested such cells from the scalps and brain linings of human corpses and reprogrammed them into stem cells.
As such, this work could help lead to novel stem cell therapies and shed light on a variety of mental disorders, such asschizophrenia, autism and bipolar disorder, which may stem from problems with development, researchers say.
Making stem cells
Mature cells can be made or induced to become immature cells, known as pluripotent stem cells, which have the ability to become any tissue in the body and potentially can replace cells destroyed by disease or injury. This discovery was honored last week with the Nobel Prize.
Past research showed this same process could be carried out with so-called fibroblasts taken from the skin of human cadavers. Fibroblasts are the most common cells of connective tissue in animals, and they synthesize the extracellular matrix, the complex scaffolding between cells. [Science of Death: 10 Tales from the Crypt]
Cadaver-collected fibroblasts can be reprogrammed into induced pluripotent stem cells using chemicals known as growth factors that are linked with stem cell activity. Reprogrammed cells could then develop into a multitude of cell types, including the neurons found in the brain and spinal cord. However, bacteria and fungi on the skin can wreak havoc on the culturing processes used to grow cells in labs, making the process tricky to successfully carry out.
Now scientists have taken fibroblasts from the scalps and the brain linings of 146 human brain donors and grown induced pluripotent stem cells from them as well.
"We were able to culture living cells from deceased individuals on a larger scale than ever done before," researcher Thomas Hyde, a neuroscientist, neurologist and chief operating officer at the Lieber Institute for Brain Development in Baltimore, told LiveScience. Previous studies had only grown fibroblasts from a total of about a half-dozen cadavers.
The bodies had been dead up to nearly two days before scientists collected tissues from them. The corpses had been kept cool in the morgue, but not frozen.
The researchers found fibroblasts taken from the brain lining, or dura mater, were 16 times more likely to grow successfully than those from the scalp. This was expected, since the scalp is prone to fungal and bacterial contamination just like any other part of the skin. These contaminants can ruin any attempt to grow fibroblasts in lab dishes.
Surprisingly, scalp cells did proliferate more and grew more rapidly than dura mater cells. "This makes sense — the skin is constantly renewing, while the turnover in dura mater is much slower," Hyde said.
Future therapies
Cells from corpses might play a key role in developing future stem cell therapies. Successfully reprogramming induced pluripotent stem cells so they behave like the cells they are meant to replace means that samples of the mimicked cells must be present for comparison. Cadavers can provide brain, heart and other tissues for study that researchers cannot safely obtain from living people.
"For instance, we can compare neurons derived from fibroblasts with actual neurons from the same individual," Hyde said. "It tells us about how reliable a given method for deriving neurons from fibroblasts is. That can be crucial if, for example, you want to create dopamine-making neurons to treat someone with Parkinson's disease."
Studying how induced pluripotent stem cells develop into various tissues could also shed light on disorders that are due to malfunctions in development.
"We're very interested in major neuropsychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disease, autism and mental retardation," Hyde said. "By understanding what goes wrong with the brain cells in these individuals, we could perhaps help fix that."
The scientists detailed their findings online Sept. 27 in the journal PLoS ONE.
Copyright 2012 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Guilty or not, give our April mug shots a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Guilty or not, give our April mug shots a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Guilty or not, give our May mug shots a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Guilty or not, give our May mug shots a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
The 17-year periodical cicadas are predicted to emerge this spring and bring their "melodious" sounds with them. We have what you need to learn about and share the invasion experience.
The 17-year periodical cicadas are predicted to emerge this spring and bring their "melodious" sounds with them. We have what you need to learn about and share the invasion experience.
Guilty or not, these strange mug shots are worth a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Guilty or not, these strange mug shots are worth a look. This information was supplied by law enforcement and describes recent arrests and charges. All defendants are presumed innocent.
Photos of the search for 2 suspects in the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday that killed three people and wounded scores.
Photos of the search and capture of suspects in the explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday that killed three people and wounded scores.
Tuesday, April 16 2013 6:50 PM EDT2013-04-16 22:50:47 GMT
The bomb that exploded at the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon sent shock waves across the country.
The bomb that exploded at the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon sent shock waves across the country. Crime scene photos obtained exclusively by FOX 5 Atlanta are the first look at what is left of the first deadly device.
About four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line.
About four hours into the race and two hours after the men's winner crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion could be heard a few seconds later.
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