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Intravenous administration of isotonic fluids is the standard emergency treatment in the US for patients with severe blood loss, but bioengineering researchers have reported improved resuscitation with a radically different approach. Building on earlier studies in humans that have shown benefits of intravenous fluids that are eight times saltier than normal saline, the researchers combined hypertonic saline with viscosity enhancers that thicken blood.

Hydrogen sulphide is a gas most commonly associated with the smell of stink bombs, sewage and rotten eggs, but researchers have now identified a role for this gas in regulating blood pressure.

A comparison of breast cancer biopsies before and after treatment show that a subset of cells, which have stem cell-like properties, are resistant to standard chemotherapy. Tumors treated with lapatinib, which inhibits a pathway important for self-renewal, retained a smaller fraction of these tumorigenic cells after therapy.

An old, fickle therapy for a variety of autoimmune diseases is getting a makeover, thanks to a decade-long investigation. The original treatment, called intravenous immunoglobulin or IVIG, is an amalgam of specific antibodies made from the pooled blood plasma of thousands of healthy donors. Physicians have used it both on-label and off in patients with lupus, arthritis, asthma and other immune disorders, to varying degrees of success.

Young Internet-using men who have sex with men AND who meet their sexual partners both online and offline have greater numbers of partners, appear more likely to contract HIV, and report higher substance use rates than those who meet their partners exclusively online or offline, according to new research.

Breast cancer patients who carry the wild-type gene required for tamoxifen metabolism may have comparable risk of recurrence when taking tamoxifen or an aromatase inhibitor, according to modeling data. Cytochrome P450 2D6 (CYP2D6) converts tamoxifen into its metabolically active form called endoxifen.

Researchers have demonstrated a way to manufacture minuscule closed containers that might be used to deliver precise micro- or even nano-quantities of drugs. First the scientists create flat patterns, origami, of exactly the fold up shapes familiar to kindergarten children making paper pyramids, cubes or other solids, except that these are as small as 30 micrometers on a side. (1 inch = 25,400 micrometers)

Even when their blood pressure is kept strictly under control with the best available medicine, African-American patients with chronic kidney disease continue to lose their kidney function over time, research shows. The finding suggests that treating CKD in this population may be vastly more complex than researchers had previously thought, with blood pressure control being only one piece of the therapeutic puzzle.

Researchers have found that a new obesity prevention program reduced the risk for onset of eating disorders by 61 percent and obesity by 55 percent in young women. These effects continued for as long as 3 years after the program ended. These results are noteworthy because, to date, the idea that we can reduce risk for future onset of eating disorders and obesity has been an unrealized goal: over 80 prevention programs have been evaluated, but no previous program had been found to significantly reduce risk for onset of these serious health problems.

Despite significant efforts to improve access to safe water and sanitation, a new report argues that much more needs to be done. A major survey in Kazakhstan found that, despite meeting the UN definition of what constitutes safe water, a large number of people reported suffering from illnesses like hepatitis and gastroenteritis.