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Low Levels Of Contamination Found In Ready-to-eat Speciality Meats Sold In UK
A new report published highlights that 99% of ready-to-eat speciality meats sold in the UK are safe to eat. However the study also reveals that a very small proportion of the meats contained Salmonella or unsafe levels of Listeria monocytogenes.

Wall Street Journal Examines Patients' Confusion Over Coverage Of Preventive Exams
As employers increasingly offer no-cost preventive care as a means of controlling health costs, some people under such plans are being charged for services not deemed preventive by the insurer, the Wall Street Journal reports. According to Watson Wyatt Worldwide, 72% of large employers in 2009 cover 100% of preventive care -- such as physicals, colonoscopies or mammograms -- for employees, an increase from 55% of large companies in 2008. The Journal reports that the charges often result from billing errors or from a physician"s office being unaware of an insurer"s procedures. Charges that are the result of billing errors often can be reversed. However, others -- such as a test or treatment not being defined by the insurer as preventive -- force some patients to "wage a protracted battle" to get the charges reversed, according to the Journal. When unexpected charges appear on patients" bills, physicians and employers often receive complaints but they have little control over how insurers classify treatments. The Journal reports that patients can prevent being charged for preventive services by checking with their insurer before seeking care; asking for specific, covered screenings and treatments at physicians" offices; reviewing explanation of benefits forms supplied by insurers; asking supervisors at insurers to review disputed claims; and seeking help from employees in company human re departments (Wilde Mathews, Wall Street Journal, 5/21).
News of the day
British Veterinary AssociationGuide To Partnerships In Veterinary Practice, UK
Continuing efforts to help its members form lasting and profitable partnerships and pre-empt disputes in veterinary practice, the British Veterinary Association (BVA) has revised its "Guide to partnerships in veterinary practice". It will be of particular interest to vets buying into a partnership for the first time and will also be helpful to partners revising their existing agreement.
Oncology

Pitt Diabetes Researchers Identify Key Molecular Pathway Critical To Replication Of Insulin-Producing Cells

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine are trailblazing the molecular pathway that regulates replication of pancreatic beta cells, the insulin-producing cells that are lacking in people who have type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Building on findings from earlier this year, a research team led by Andrew F. Stewart, M.D., professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, has now shown in mouse experiments that knocking out two cell cycle proteins leads to robust beta cell replication. The results were presented today in New Orleans at the 69th Annual Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association, and in an accompanying paper published online in the ADA"s journal Diabetes. Abstract Number 343-OR. "These proteins act like brakes to prevent regeneration of beta cells," Dr. Stewart explained. "It"s a redundant system, though, so removing just one of the proteins isn"t sufficient to make beta cells replicate." In earlier studies, Rupangi Vasavada Ph.D., an assistant professor in Pitt"s endocrinology division working with Dr. Stewart, assessed mice that lacked a key regulator of cell division called retinoblastoma protein (pRB), so named because mutations in it can lead to the childhood eye cancer. But the loss of pRB alone did not make beta cells regenerate. In the current study, lead author George Harb, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in Pitt"s endocrinology division, engineered mice to lack the gene for another cell cycle protein that is very similar to pRB called p130. Again, there was no impact on beta cell production. The similarity of pRB and p130 hinted that they serve the same purpose, and so his next step was to engineer mice deficient in both proteins. The result was a marked increase in beta cell replication. "The cell cycle has yet another protein, called p107, that is much like pRB and p130," Dr. Stewart noted. "Now we want to see what happens to beta cell numbers if we knock out any two of the three or all three." In an online publication in Diabetes in January, another of his research teams demonstrated for the first time that human beta cells could be induced to replicate by boosting levels of cell cycle proteins cdk-6 and cyclin D1 using gene therapy techniques. When study co-author Nathalie Fiaschi-Taesch, Ph.D., assistant professor in Pitt"s endocrinology division, transplanted those engineered cells into diabetic mice, blood sugar levels normalized. She will give a symposium at the ADA meeting describing that work. The Pitt researchers also plan to examine the effects of gain or loss of other cell cycle proteins in an ongoing effort to better understand the regulatory pathway of beta cell replication and to identify targets that might make it possible one day to treat diabetes by giving patients more insulin-producing cells, perhaps by expanding cadaveric donor cells in the lab. "It"s now clear that both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are beta cell deficiency diseases," Dr. Stewart said. "And while we work on making more beta cells, our colleagues are trying to tackle the autoimmunity problems that cause a reduction in their number. Ultimately, both issues have to be addressed to develop a cure for diabetes." The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), and the Don and Arleen Wagner and the Pam and Scott Kroh family foundations. Dr. Harb also is supported by a JDRF fellowship award. The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine


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