http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The liver is one of the few organs in our body that can regenerate itself, but how it occurs is a biological mystery. New research from BRIC, University of Copenhagen and the Finsen Laboratory, Rigshospitalet, has identified a protein complex that acts as a molecular switch turning on a self-regeneration program in the liver. The protein complex furthermore fine tunes liver metabolism, allowing this to run efficiently in parallel with the tissue damage repair. The new knowledge challenges the current focus on stem cells and may point towards future simplification of treatments used for repairing tissue damage. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-molecular-self-renewal-liver.html Medical research Thu, 07 Mar 2013 12:52:00 EST news281883113 After you eat, your liver switches from producing glucose to storing it. At the same time, a cellular signaling pathway known as the unfolded protein response (UPR) is transiently activated, but it is not clear how this pathway contributes to the liver's metabolic switch. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-factor-liver-metabolism.html Medical research Fri, 21 Dec 2012 12:00:08 EST news275306928 (Medical Xpress)—An innovative delivery method for tetrahydrocannabinol, the main psychoactive constituent of Cannabis, is being developed at the University of Mississippi. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-method-thc-transmucosal-patch-drug.html Medications Thu, 20 Dec 2012 06:55:17 EST news275208890 Researchers in Singapore have succeeded in tracking, for the first time, the molecular changes caused by type 2 diabetes that affect how the body handles glucose production in the liver. In a series of experiments in mice, the researchers introduced a form of the compound pyruvate that incorporated specially treated carbon nuclei. This allowed the researchers to follow the processing of the compound using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). In this way, the team, led by Phillip Lee of the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, showed that the enzyme pyruvate carboxylase plays a key role in the development of diabetes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-ability-molecular-diabetes-personalized-medicine.html Diabetes Wed, 19 Dec 2012 09:31:51 EST news275131897