http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress provides the latest news from Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum Environment moulds behaviour - and not just that of people in society, but also at the microscopic level. This is because, for their function, neurons are dependent on the cell environment, the so-termed extracellular matrix. Researchers at the Ruhr-Universität have found evidence that this complex network of molecules controls the formation and activity of the neuronal connections. The team led by Dr. Maren Geißler und Prof. Andreas Faissner from the Department of Cell Morphology and Molecular Neurobiology reports in the Journal of Neuroscience in collaboration with the team of Dr. Ainhara Aguado, Prof. Christian Wetzel and Prof. Hanns Hatt from the Department of Cell Physiology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-cellular-environment-formation-neuronal.html Neuroscience Mon, 06 May 2013 11:59:03 EST news287060336 A new hypothesis has been developed by researchers in Bochum on how Alzheimer's disease could occur. They analysed the interaction of the proteins FE65 and BLM that regulate cell division. In the cell culture model, they discovered spherical structures in the nucleus that contained FE65 and BLM. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-alzheimer-protein-spheres-nucleus-wrong.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Thu, 11 Apr 2013 15:00:28 EST news284911221 For many patients the removal of several centimetres of bone from the lower leg following a serious injury or a tumour extraction is only the beginning of a long-lasting ordeal. Autologous stem cells have been found to accelerate and boost the healing process. Surgeons at the RUB clinic Bergmannsheil have achieved promising results: without stem cells, it takes on average 49 days for one centimetre of bone to regrow; with stem cells, that period has been reduced to 37 days. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-stem-cells-gaps-bones.html Medical research Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:54:24 EST news284280856 Biologists from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum have explored how to protect neurons that control movements from dying off. In the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience they report that the molecule 7,8-Dihydroxyflavone, also known as vitamin P, ensures the survival of motor neurons in culture. It sends the survival signal on another path than the molecule Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which was previously considered a candidate for the treatment of motoneuron diseases or after spinal cord damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-vitamin-p-potential-approach-treatment.html Medical research Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:25:23 EST news284120671 A dysfunction of a certain Calcium channel, the so called P/Q-type channel, in neurons of the cerebellum is sufficient to cause different motor diseases as well as a special type of epilepsy. This is reported by the research team of Dr. Melanie Mark and Prof. Dr. Stefan Herlitze from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. They investigated mice that lacked the ion channel of the P/Q-type in the modulatory input neurons of the cerebellum. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-dysfunction-cerebellar-calcium-channel-motor.html Neuroscience Thu, 21 Mar 2013 09:20:56 EST news283076448 In a long-term study, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Margraf, Alexander von Humboldt Professor for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy at the RUB, investigated the psychological effects of plastic surgery on approximately 550 patients in cooperation with colleagues from the University of Basel. Patients demonstrated more enjoyment of life, satisfaction and self-esteem after their physical appearance had been surgically altered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-people-knife-psychologists-long-term-positive.html Psychology & Psychiatry Mon, 11 Mar 2013 10:40:02 EST news282215051 (Medical Xpress)—The reason why some people are worse at learning than others has been revealed by a research team from Berlin, Bochum, and Leipzig, operating within the framework of the Germany-wide network "Bernstein Focus State Dependencies of Learning". http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-brain-sensory-sufficiently-team.html Neuroscience Wed, 13 Feb 2013 10:50:02 EST news279973192 When people see pictures of bodies, a whole range of brain regions are active. This network is altered in women with anorexia nervosa. In a functional magnetic resonance imaging study, two regions that are important for the processing of body images were functionally more weakly connected in anorexic women than in healthy women. The stronger this "connection error" was, the more overweight the respondents considered themselves. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-error-brains-anorexics.html Psychology & Psychiatry Thu, 24 Jan 2013 11:09:04 EST news278248116 A certain enzyme, the CaM kinase II, keeps the cardiac muscle flexible. By transferring phosphate groups to the giant protein titin, it relaxes the muscle cells. This is reported by researchers led by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Linke of the Institute of Physiology at the Ruhr Universität in the journal Circulation Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-enzyme-cam-kinase-ii-muscle.html Cardiology Thu, 17 Jan 2013 10:31:39 EST news277640781 The channel protein Pannexin1 keeps nerve cells flexible and thus the brain receptive for new knowledge. Together with colleagues from Canada and the U.S., researchers at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum led by the junior professor Dr. Nora Prochnow from the Department of Molecular Brain Research describe these results in PLoS ONE. In the study, mice comprising no Pannexin1 in memory-related brain structures displayed symptoms similar to autism. Their nerve cells lacked synaptic plasticity, i.e. the ability to form new synaptic contacts or give up old contacts based on the level of usage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-brain-receptive-channel-protein-pannexin1.html Neuroscience Wed, 09 Jan 2013 09:43:27 EST news276946982 For the first time, Bochum clinicians have been able to show on the basis of a large sample, that it is possible to examine children's heads in the MRI scanner without general anaesthesia or other medical sedation. In many cases it was sufficient to prepare the young patients for the examination in an age-appropriate manner in order to take away their fear of the tube. And the results speak for themselves: of the 2461 image sequences recorded with 326 patients, the participating radiologists classified 97 percent as "diagnostically relevant". http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-magnetic-resonance-scanner-cuddly-toy.html Other Fri, 16 Nov 2012 09:39:07 EST news272281135 New insights into certain muscle diseases, the filaminopathies, are reported by an international research team led by Dr. Rudolf Andre Kley of the RUB's University Hospital Bergmannsheil in the journal Brain. The scientists from the Neuromuscular Centre Ruhrgebiet (headed by Prof. Matthias Vorgerd) at the Neurological University Clinic (Director: Prof. Martin Tegenthoff) cooperated with colleagues from eleven institutes in seven countries. Among other things they found that protection mechanisms to combat abnormal protein deposits do not work properly in filaminopathy patients. This opens up new starting points for therapies that the team aims to test on cell cultures. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-impaired-protein-degradation-muscle-diseases.html Medical research Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:46:05 EST news267785157 People who bear the genetic mutation for Huntington's disease learn faster than healthy people. The more pronounced the mutation was, the more quickly they learned. This is reported by researchers from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and from Dortmund in the journal Current Biology. The team has thus demonstrated for the first time that neurodegenerative diseases can go hand in hand with increased learning efficiency. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-faster-neurodegenerative-disease.html Neuroscience Fri, 14 Sep 2012 09:48:24 EST news266834895 After waking up, the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva rises considerably; this is true not only for grown-ups but for babies as well. A research team from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and from Basel has reported this finding in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-method-team-stress-biology-babies.html Psychology & Psychiatry Tue, 28 Aug 2012 11:15:55 EST news265371227 Researchers report how abnormal protein deposits in the brains of Alzheimer's patients disrupt the signaling between nerve cells. They varied the amount of APP protein and related proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease in cell cultures, and then analyzed how this manipulation affected other proteins in the cell. The result: The amount of APP present was related to the amount of an enzyme that is essential for the production of neurotransmitters and therefore for communication amongst nerve cells. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-alzheimer-protein-neurotransmitter-production.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Tue, 21 Aug 2012 11:50:01 EST news264767503