Hormones related to diabetes may also be related to fertility

The hormones leptin and insulin appear to work together to not only regulate blood sugar levels but also, surprisingly to researchers, regulate female fertility, a new study in the journal Cell Metabolism suggests.

Further, diabetes and obesity may not always be connected, researchers say.

“Many people, and even many physicians, think you develop diabetes that is solely secondary to obesity,” the study’s senior author, Dr. Joel Elmquist with the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said in a news release.

“Our findings indicate that is not necessarily the case, at least in mice. We can make the animals very diabetic without obesity, suggesting that there may be a circuit or path of resistance to these signals in the brain that helps explain the powerful anti-diabetic actions of leptin.”

The findings imply that certain brain cells play a large role in prompting weight loss by controlling appetite. They also showed that female mice with the most brain cells that couldn’t process the hormones had the most trouble breeding.

Source: HealthDay

Common antifungal treatment may fight cancer

An inexpensive antifungal drug slowed tumor growth in mice, potentially making it a cheap and easy way to help in the fight against cancer, researchers say.

The drug, itraconazole, did not wipe out tumors entirely, but it may enhance the effects of other drugs, the scientists reported in the journal Cancer Cell.

Researchers at Stanford University identified a pathway involved in the development of cancer, then experimented with drugs that interfere with it.

“There is a fairly broad range of tumors in which this molecular cascade, called the Hedgehog pathway, plays an important role,” said Stanford’s Philip Beachy in a statement.

Researchers tested mice with an oral solution of itraconazole, which slowed the growth of tumors injected under the skin. Untreated mice grew giant tumors during the same time.

Accordingly, the drug should be tested in cancer patients, the researchers said.

“It’s possible that there is a population of patients that can be treated relatively soon,” Beachy said.

Source: Reuters Science

Inadequate sleep increases food consumption

The difference between four hours of sleep and eight hours of sleep may be about a Big Mac’s-worth of calories – or 560, according to scientists.

“Sleep restriction could be one of the environmental factors that contribute to the obesity epidemic,” said Dr. Laurent Brondel of the European Center for Taste Sciences in Dijon, France in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Previous studies have seen a correlation between sleep duration and higher weight to height ratios among study subjects, but none had explored the effects of less sleep on normal-weight individuals’ eating habits.

After a night of reduced sleep, subjects consumed 22 percent more calories, on average, than when they were allowed to sleep for eight hours, the study found.

“It is time to understand that sleep is not just losing time, besides the recovery processes that occur, there are many other functions – energy conservation, memory and so on – which are going on,” the study said.

Source: Reuters Health

Compiled by David Lavine

New research at UC Davis is revealing new ways to extend both plant and fruit life.

Research results have indicated that plant life spans were extended up to 50 percent in some cases; meanwhile fruit life span has been bolstered enough to help international trade.

The research has affected both the plants and fruits currently being purchased, and indications suggest the trend will continue. The results will mean better quality plants and fruits available for purchase by the consumer.

Michael S. Reid, professor of plant sciences at UC Davis, is one of the primary researchers in the extension of plant life. For over eight years, Reid has been researching the effect of Thidiazuron (TDZ) on plants, a type of cytokinin, or plant hormone, that is naturally present in flowers. His research has shown that the spraying of low concentrations of TDZ on plants has led to their extended life spans. Leaves on plants take longer to yellow, thus resulting in better longevity as a consequence of more flowers and sugars.

“You can treat them at a nursery and the effect continues for a long time,” Reid said.

This treatment is so effective that potted plants have seen their life spans increase by five to 10 percent; meanwhile some other plants have seen increases of up to 50 percent.

“It could be very beneficial to the flower market,” he said.

Reid said that the chemical has been in commercial use with cotton and with cut flowers for a while now. When asked if the chemical might be dangerous to humans in any way, he said that none of the research done so far has shown that to be case.

“It is one of the safer ones for sure,” Reid said.

Cai-Zhong Jiang, United States Department of Agriculture research plant physiologist, agrees that the chemical is safe.

Jiang believes that TDZ has great potential. He said that the chemical improves the quality of the flowers, thus making it very beneficial to both the plants and the growers.

“It keeps plants alive longer, and has the potential to be good for growers,” Jiang said.

He said that the research is very promising, and hopes it will lead them to their goal of one day not having to use chemicals, but just being able to manipulate plant genes.

The research is already drawing international attention. Both Reid and Jiang said that the attention has been worldwide – with primary focus from Europe – and that growers and horticulturalists in general have shown much interest.

Interest has also been prevalent in Beth Mitcham’s research.

Mitcham, a postharvest pomologist at UC Davis, is studying the effects of 1 Methyl Cycle Propane (1-MCP), or Smartfresh, on fruits. Her research has shown that the life span of fruits increases with the use of 1-MCP.

“It slows down the ripening of the fruit, and in some cases even stops it,” Mitcham said.

1-MCP is primarily being used on apples, pears and bananas currently, but researchers are attempting to expand on the number of fruits affected by this research.

“It’s pretty revolutionary in what it does,” she said.

Mitcham said research has revealed that the gas, 1-MCP, protects fruits from ethylene by keeping them fresh through stimulation. Ethylene causes fruits to yellow quicker, and thus shortens the life span of fruits.

“It is especially important for export markets,” she said, adding that she believes 1-MCP can significantly help international trade.

In addition to the TDZ study, Mitcham believes that the research being conducted with life spans of plants and fruits has made UC Davis one of the leaders in plant sciences.

“In terms of post-harvest research, UC Davis is the place,” Mitcham said.

Nevertheless, even with all this research, these experts have some good tips for people to keep their plants and fruits alive longer.

Both Reid and Jiang recommend placing cut flowers in non-diet citrus soda with a little Clorox, as it helps the flowers stay fresh longer. In terms of potted plants, they said to water carefully, by neither over-watering nor under-watering them. They suggest that both types of flowers, whether cut or potted, be chosen carefully and placed in a well-lit area.

In terms of fruits, Mitcham suggests keeping tomatoes at room temperature, and not putting them in the fridge. She also suggests keeping fruits and vegetables – especially green vegetables – apart due to fruits being susceptible to gases released by vegetables.

ERIC C. LIPSKY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

A recent discovery at the United States Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York has physicists excited.

The experiment group called “STAR,” located at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) in the New York laboratory, found a strange new antihyperparticle called the antihypertriton.

“We have discovered a small of piece of the puzzle that will help physicists understand more about matter and antimatter,” said Manuel Calderon de la Barca Sanchez, an associate professor of physics at UC Davis who is part of the STAR experiment.

STAR Collaboration published a report online in the journal Science last month. Data analysis for antihypertriton was conducted by Jinhui Chen of the STAR Collaboration, a postdoctoral researcher at Kent State University.

Physicists at the Brookhaven Laboratory were using the RHIC to create high-speed collisions of gold particles when they discovered the antihypertriton. The energy released from these collisions forms new particles.

A triton is the nucleus of a hydrogen isotope that consists of a proton and two neutrons. In particle physics, neutrons are made up of three quarks, one “up” and two “down.” One of the neutrons in a hypertriton, on the other hand, is replaced with a lambda hyperon particle. Unlike the neutron, Calderon said, the lambda hyperon contains one “up,” one “down” and one “strange” quark.

Therefore, an antihypertriton is composed of antimatter equivalents to the up, down and “strange” quarks.

“The problem with detecting these antihyperparticles is that they are extremely unstable and decay in fractions of a second or even millionths of a second, “said Rosi Reed, a graduate student in physics at UC Davis, who is part of the STAR experiment.

Researchers worked backwards to identify the antihyperparticle by tracing the trajectory of collision particles. This allowed them to analyze new particles formed from the decay of the original particle, said Daniel Cebra, a UC Davis professor of physics who is involved in ensuring data quality for this research project.

Cebra said that so far, researchers have been able to collect evidence of about 70 antihypertritons from approximately 100 million collisions.

“The laws of physics tell us that the matter and antimatter world are roughly the same,” Calderon said. “However, if you look around, you do not see antimatter all the time, you see matter. So, we know there is a fundamental problem.”

The existing imbalance between matter and antimatter is a phenomenon that physicists still cannot account for.

Calderon said understanding antihyperparticles is a small yet critical piece to perhaps one day answering difficult questions about antimatter.

SRI RAMESH can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.