A protein newly discovered by scientists in China is aiding in the dramatic reversal of stroke-like damage in laboratory animals and may one day rescue humans from neurological injury, the research team is predicting.
(Medical Xpress)—Programmers typically evolve new code by copying and modifying existing code to meet new needs. With the more advanced programming languages, they also make use of something known in the business as polymorphism—the ...
(Medical Xpress)—Neuroscience typically proceeds by trimming back previous overly dogmatic statements. Such is the case with new findings that proteins are locally manufactured to order throughout an extended neuronal tree. ...
When a heart stops beating, blood stops flowing and delivering oxygen to the brain (hypoxia) and other vital organs (ischemia). There is a small window (about 4 minutes) before the lack of blood flow begins to damage the ...
Research published today (Feb. 11, 2019) reveals how one mutation causes fragile X, the most common inherited intellectual disability.
Feb 11, 2019
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A team of researchers from the U.S., China and Taiwan has found some rare instances of fathers passing mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to their offspring. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, ...
(Medical Xpress)—From the time it first comes online during development the nervous system begins to exact precise control over many biologic functions. In some cases, too much control. When it does, a little nerve-squelching ...
(Medical Xpress)—Few classes of drugs have galvanized the pharmaceutical industry in recent times like the cannabinoids. This class of molecules includes not only the natural forms, but also a vast new treasury of powerful ...
Are pomegranates really the superfood we've been led to believe will counteract the aging process? Up to now, scientific proof has been fairly weak. And some controversial marketing tactics have led to skepticism as well. ...
Jul 11, 2016
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Mitochondria, the power generators in our cells, are essential for life. When they are under attack—from poisons, environmental stress or genetic mutations—cells wrench these power stations apart, strip out the damaged ...
Jan 14, 2016
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In cell biology, a mitochondrion (plural mitochondria) is a membrane-enclosed organelle found in most eukaryotic cells. These organelles range from 0.5–10 micrometers (μm) in diameter. Mitochondria are sometimes described as "cellular power plants" because they generate most of the cell's supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), used as a source of chemical energy. In addition to supplying cellular energy, mitochondria are involved in a range of other processes, such as signaling, cellular differentiation, cell death, as well as the control of the cell cycle and cell growth. Mitochondria have been implicated in several human diseases, including mitochondrial disorders and cardiac dysfunction, and may play a role in the aging process. The word mitochondrion comes from the Greek μίτος or mitos, thread + χονδρίον or khondrion, granule.
Several characteristics make mitochondria unique. The number of mitochondria in a cell varies widely by organism and tissue type. Many cells have only a single mitochondrion, whereas others can contain several thousand mitochondria. The organelle is composed of compartments that carry out specialized functions. These compartments or regions include the outer membrane, the intermembrane space, the inner membrane, and the cristae and matrix. Mitochondrial proteins vary depending on the tissue and the species. In humans, 615 distinct types of proteins have been identified from cardiac mitochondria; whereas in Murinae (rats), 940 proteins encoded by distinct genes have been reported. The mitochondrial proteome is thought to be dynamically regulated. Although most of a cell's DNA is contained in the cell nucleus, the mitochondrion has its own independent genome. Further, its DNA shows substantial similarity to bacterial genomes.
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