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Researchers have discovered how diabetes, by driving inflammation and slowing blood flow, dramatically accelerates atherosclerosis. Experts once believed that atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, developed when too much cholesterol clogged arteries with fatty deposits called plaques. When blood vessels became completely blocked, heart attacks and strokes occurred. Today most agree that the reaction of the body's immune system to fatty build-up, more than the build-up itself, creates heart attack risk.

A protein signaling pathway recently discovered to guide the formation of the skeleton in the fetus also keeps bones strong through adult life. Furthermore, the same mechanism may be at the heart of osteoporosis, where too little bone is made over time, and bone cancer, where uncontrolled bone growth contributes to tumors. Lastly, the results argue that an experimental Alzheimer's drug may also be useful against bone cancer.

SATB1 is a nuclear protein well known for its crucial role in regulating gene expression during the differentiation and activation of T cells, making it a key player in the immune system. But scientists have discovered that SATB1 has a darker side: it is an essential contributing factor in the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.

On Wednesday, March 12, 2008, surgeons at UC-San Diego Medical Center performed what is believed to be the country's first removal of a diseased appendix through the mouth. They made one small incision to insert a small camera in the belly button for the oral appendix removal procedure.

Scientists have discovered a new rare type of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin transports oxygen in the red blood corpuscles. When bound to oxygen it changes color. The new hemoglobin type appears optically to be transporting little oxygen. Measurements of the blood oxygen level therefore present a similar picture to patients suffering from an inherited cardiac defect. Instruments falsely report anoxia in affected people.

It's common knowledge that humans and other animals are able to visually judge depth because we have two eyes and the brain compares the images from each. But we can also judge depth with only one eye, and scientists have been searching for how the brain accomplishes that feat.

Stroke patients who use ibuprofen for arthritis pain or other conditions while taking aspirin to reduce the risk of a second stroke undermine aspirin's ability to act as an anti-platelet agent, researchers have shown.

Scientists have identified chemical compounds that hold promise as potential therapies for schistosomiasis, a parasitic disease that afflicts more than 200 million people worldwide. The compounds may provide much-needed new weapons in worldwide battle against schistosomiasis.

Implantable cardiac defibrillators that are equipped with wireless technology are vulnerable to having private medical information extracted -- and even having the devices reprogrammed -- without the patients' knowledge. Not only does this pose a potential security risk, it could also endanger patients' physical safety.

Neuroscientists studying the mind's ability to process images have completed the first empirical study to demonstrate, using animal models, how populations of nerve cells in visual cortex adapt to changing images. Their findings could lead to sight-improving therapies for people following trauma or stroke.