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Inhalation of carbon monoxide (CO) can reduce skeletal muscle injury after the following limb peripheral vascular disease (ischemia), where blood flow is interrupted and can be compounded by reperfusion, when damage is caused after the blood supply returns to the tissue. When this occurs, there can be limb loss or death.

A short-term, very-high dose regimen of the immune-suppressing drug cyclophosphamide seems to slow progression of multiple sclerosis in most of a small group of patients studied and may even restore neurological function lost to the disease, Johns Hopkins researchers report. The findings in nine people, most of whom had failed all other treatments, suggest new ways to treat a disease that tends to progress relentlessly.

Results of research into the associations between cancer and socio-economic deprivation and affluence have shown that, in contrast to cancers in older people, the numbers of new cases and deaths from the disease in teenagers and young adults decrease with increasing deprivation. Researchers also noted increases in the incidence of a number of cancers, including two potentially preventable cancers among younger people: cervical cancer and melanoma.

With fewer than 30,000 human genes with which to work, Nature has to mix and match to generate the myriad types of neurons or nerve cells needed to assemble the brain and nervous system. Keeping this involved process on the straight and narrow requires a clever balance of promotion and inhibition, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine.

Low levels of vitamin D appear to be associated with higher risk of myocardial infarction in men, according to a new report.

Researchers have identified traits of an aggressive type of prostate cancer that occurs in about 10 percent of men who have the disease. They hope the discovery could lead, possibly within the next few years, to a simple urine test that will help to diagnose this variation of prostate cancer.

Scientists are watching a small group of neurons that enable sexual maturity and fertility make a critical journey: from where they form, near the developing nose, to deep inside the brain.

Avoiding dental disease is important for patients at risk of infective endocarditis. While bacteria can get into the bloodstream during tooth brushing, the risk is much lower when the teeth and the tissues around them are healthy. Preventive antibiotics reduce the likelihood of bacteria being found in the bloodstream when a tooth is extracted but antibiotics are only recommended for patients at the highest risk of a bad outcome from infective endocarditis.

People with irritable bowel syndrome have a higher than usual number of chili pepper pain receptors, according to a new study. The research could lead to new therapies for the estimated one in five adults in the UK and US who have irritable bowel syndrome, a painful condition which is poorly understood.

This research abstract provides the first description of nicotine use by narcolepsy patients. Because people with narcolepsy can fall asleep suddenly and without warning, even while eating, walking or driving, those who smoke nicotine in bed are at a high risk of burning either themselves or the objects around them, or starting a fire, if they fall asleep.