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Young adults are more likely than older adults to quit smoking successfully, partly because they are more likely to make a serious effort to quit, say researchers. The study also found that young adults, aged 18 to 24, are more likely to have tried to quit smoking than older adults, aged 50 to 64.

Heart disease is still a major killer, especially in the western world, but new therapies based on stem cells and other techniques could now be imminent. Progress is being held back however by the difficulty testing new therapies on human heart tissue, with animal models being only of limited value owing to differences in structure and activity.

Scientists have used yeast cells to better understand a collection of proteins associated with the formation of actin networks, which are essential to cell movement. The cell's ability to move is important to a broad range of biomedical concerns, including understanding how immune system cells pursue disease-causing invaders and how metastasizing cancer cells migrate from a tumor.

A drug originally used to treat iron poisoning can significantly boost the body's ability to heal and regrow injured bones, according to a new study. Bone density following the new treatment more than doubled. Researchers found new blood vessel growth, necessary for bone healing, was achieved through a cell pathway.

Five human embryonic stem cell lines have been developed without the destruction of embryos. These new results have the potential to end the ethical debate surrounding the use of embryos to derive stem cells. The stem cells were genetically normal and differentiated into cell types of all three germ layers of the body, including blood cells, neurons, heart cells, cartilage, and other cell types of potentially therapeutic significance.

Middle-aged women are much more likely to be depressed if they are obese, and vice versa, a new study finds. Rising excess weight goes along with less physical activity, higher calorie intake -- and depression -- according to the research. What is the reason? Depression and obesity likely fuel one another. "When people gain weight, they're more likely to become depressed, and when they get depressed, they have more trouble losing weight," said a psychiatrist working on the study.

Much controversy has developed over the past year about the safety and potential complications of drug-eluting heart stents, increasing the risk of possible fatal blood clots, even years after an angioplasty procedure. However, a new study tells a different story. Drug-eluting stents were found to be most effective in reducing the need for repeat angioplasty procedures or bypass surgery in angioplasty patients at the 'highest risk' for a renarrowing of the artery around the stent, without significantly increasing the rate of death or risk of heart attack.

Researchers found that women with irritable bowel syndrome cannot effectively turn-off a pain modulation mechanism in the brain, which causes them to be more sensitive to abdominal pain, compared to women without IBS. The findings may lead to a greater understanding of the condition and new treatment approaches.

Medical researchers have found a way to reduce the amount of bad cholesterol and fatty acids that end up in the blood from food the body metabolizes, a key discovery that could lead to new drugs to treat and reverse the effects of diabetes and heart disease related to obesity. Existing drugs called statins are used to lower cholesterol, but do not treat obesity or diabetes.

Breast tumors that are 1 centimeter in size or smaller no more than 0.4 inch in length can still be very aggressive and may require more intensive therapy than is routinely offered today, say researchers at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Fla (see also Breast Cancer). The study, which is being presented at the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, is one of the few that has looked at outcomes of women who have tiny tumors that have not spread to the lymph nodes.