Researchers who figured out how to make valued embryonic stem cells out of ordinary skin cells said they had found a way to cut one cancer-causing ingredient out of the mix.
But it came at a price--the method may be safer, but it is also less efficient, according to Reuters.
Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan said the findings demonstrate that the stem cell breakthrough may have been exciting, but is nowhere near ready to be used in humans.
Earlier this month, teams led by Yamanaka and James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin in Madison each reported separately that they had used four genes to transform ordinary skin cells called fibroblasts into induced pluripotent stem cells--iPS cells for short.
Their reports showed a way to get perfectly matched cells from patients that have at least some of the powers of embryonic stem cells, but without having to use cloning technology or embryos.
The hope is to find a way for new medical treatments that can make use of the body’s own regenerative powers.
Yamanaka’s team, working with a team at the Gladstone Institute of Cardiovascular Disease in San Francisco, used different genes than Thomson’s team did.
One of the four genes in Yamanaka’s restorative cocktail is called c-Myc1. They grew live mice from their new cells, but later found that the mice were prone to develop tumors.
So they left out c-Myc1. It worked, although not nearly as well. The new method was about half as efficient, they reported.
“Mice derived from Myc-negative iPS cells did not develop tumors during the study period,“ they wrote. “Future study is required to determine whether these mice develop tumors later in life,“ they added.
“Furthermore, we generated human iPS cells from adult dermal fibroblasts without MYC.“
Both teams of researchers say they are still trying to fine-tune the precise genetic cocktail needed to turn back the clock on skin cells and make them act as if they came from a days-old human embryo--one with just eight or so cells, each one of which has the power to give rise to all the tissues and cells found in the human body.
Yamanaka’s team said it is possible that the other three genes they used--called Oct3/4, Sox2 and Klf4--may somehow activate Myc that naturally is found in the DNA of the skin cells.

Just running an elevator up and down is enough to determine the “structural health“ of a building, a new study reveals.
The elevator itself might run smoothly up and down, but the heavy counterweights that rumble along the vertical tracks of cable-suspended elevators produce vibrations as they go, NewScientist.com said.
This subtle shaking is enough to probe a building for structural weaknesses, according to the new study, led by Robert Nigbor of the University of California, Los Angeles, US.
Vibration signals are normally obtained using by gently moving a building with a mechanical “shaker“ attached to the structure, or by using vibrations from the environment, such as wind or seismic “micro-tremors“.
Both these methods have disadvantages, though. Normally “you have to lug a big shaker up to the top of a building,“ Nigbor says, “which is expensive and time-consuming“. Vibrations from the environment meanwhile are hard to control or to replicate accurately.
Ironically, the vibration signals produced by moving elevators are typically considered a nuisance for structural testing. “I’ve been doing vibrational measurements in buildings for almost 30 years,“ Nigbor says. “You can almost always see the elevator going up and down.“
Nigbor and colleagues instead decided to put such elevator vibrations to good use. They say the resulting process that could make vibrational testing much easier in future.
The researchers tested the Doris and Louis Factor Building, a 17-storey steel-framed structure on the University of California campus.
After a big earthquake hit the area in 1994, the US Geological Survey fitted each floor of the building with motion detectors to measure its response to future tremors.
These detectors are sensitive enough to pick up the vibrations from the elevators, their researchers found. By running the elevators up and down repeatedly, on different days, Nigbor and colleagues reproduced identical vibrations, making it easier to spot any structural changes within the building.
The researchers found that the vibrations excited the building’s “fundamental modes“ of vibration. These are the simplest movements that a building can go through, with the lowest frequency, and are the most revealing when looking for structural damage.
One limitation of this method, though, is that the vibrations may change when an elevator goes through maintenance every few years, making it difficult to compare old and new measurements.

Color X-ray machine that can detect the chemical make-up as well as the structure and shape of a sample has been demonstrated by UK researchers. They say the new technique could be better at spotting smuggled substances or abnormal body tissue.
Regular X-ray machines and CT scanners can produce images in 2 or 3D, but only in monochrome. In the same way that black-and-white film is blind to other wavelengths of light, these techniques cannot distinguish between different wavelengths of X-ray, NewScientist.com reported.
“We have miniaturized a detector that can differentiate those different wavelengths,“ says Robert Cernik, a materials scientist at Manchester University, UK, who developed the device with colleagues Kern Hauw Khor and Conny Hansson.
The detector has 256 silicon pixels that are each 50 microns wide and can pick up different X-ray frequencies. A 20 cm-thick protective tungsten filter, with 256 holes that correspond to the pixels, sits over the top of the detector.
After a sample is hit with an X-ray beam, the device collects the scattered X-rays onto the different pixels of the detector. “Each looks at one area of the sample, you move the sample through the scanner to get a full 3D image,“ says Cernik. The new technique is called Tomographic Energy Dispersive Diffraction Imaging, or TEDDI.
A previous TEDDI prototype used a single pixel to slowly build an image over about 20 hours. By using an array of X-ray sensors the prototype can do it in just two hours. With improved detectors Cernik says it should be possible to reduce this to a few minutes.
Being able to sense the color of the X-rays scattered by the sample means much more information can be extracted, the researchers say. For example, the diffraction pattern of different wavelengths can reveal material properties or chemical make-up in more detail.
“If you were looking for abnormal tissue, you would know the particular diffraction ’fingerprint’ you were looking for,“ says Cernik. “The pattern can also measure changes in the crystal structure of materials like aluminum, for example, to look at the strain in a weld.“
Cernik and colleagues have tested their machine on pieces of polymer, bone and aluminum, but the current prototype can only examine samples to a depth of 1 to 2 millimeters. This is because its silicon detector cannot sense the high-power X-rays needed to make it through thicker or denser materials.
“We know exactly how to do that,“ says Cernik, who suggests that a detector made from a heavier semiconductor than silicon, like cadmium zinc telluride, would do the trick.
Physicists using synchrotron particle accelerators already use such detectors, which could perhaps be modified for the job, he says.

Low levels of vitamin B12 could speed mental decline in older people, a new study suggests.
Among a group of men and women aged 65 and older, those whose levels of two B12 activity markers indicated higher blood levels of the vitamin had a slower drop-off in cognitive function over 10 years than their peers, researchers found, according to Reuters.
Folic acid and vitamin B12 supplements can reduce levels of homocysteine, a protein that has been tied to Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting that supplementing with these B vitamins could ward off dementia, the researchers said.
However, folic acid can mask B12 deficiency, and some studies have linked low levels of B12 and high folic acid consumption with faster mental decline.
To better understand the relationship among homocysteine, folic acid, B12 and cognitive function, Dr. Robert Clarke of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom and colleagues followed 1,648 men and women 65 and older whose mental function was tested at least three times over a 10-year period.
The researchers checked levels of the biologically active portion of vitamin B12, holotranscobalamin, as well as methylmalonic acid, a marker for B12 function. Testing for B12 itself has a “poor predictive value,“ they note.
There was no association between homocysteine or folate levels and cognitive function, the researchers found.
However, lower holotranscobalamin levels and higher methylmalonic acid levels--both of which are markers for low levels of vitamin B12--were each independently linked to faster mental decline. Higher folate levels along with low B12 levels did not accelerate mental decline.
The findings suggest that doubling a person’s vitamin B12 levels by taking oral supplements could slow cognitive decline by one third, according to Clarke and his team.
Based on the findings, low levels of vitamin B12 appear to precede mental decline, the researchers conclude. “Correction of vitamin B12 deficiency may be appropriate among those with relevant symptoms,“ they write.
Current trials comparing vitamin B12 to placebo for heart disease prevention may provide a definitive answer to whether the vitamin can indeed preserve mental function in aging people, they add.

A still to be confirmed company in the Highlands and Islands will help to develop the bear.

A robot teddy that can interact with its owner and could alert medical staff to changes in a sick child’s condition will be tested in the Highlands, Scotland.
Huggable, which is fitted with sensors, is being developed by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US, BBC said.
The project is being supported by Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
HIE said prototypes will be involved in a trial in the region in about three months time.
A local company will soon be selected to further develop it.
Researchers are working on technology that will allow the teddy to respond to cuddles and recognize its owner as they approach it.
It is being designed as a companion for children and older people.
Among the scientists’ hopes is that the teddy will be able to raise the alarm if its owner is in distress.
The project also involves the UHI Millennium Institute. The first designs were shown to nursery children in Avoch in the Black Isle last year.

Not all unwanted hair growth is simply cosmetic. It can be symptomatic of serious underlying medical conditions which can impact health, well-being and even the reproductive health of many women.
According to Biz.yahoo.com, Sharon Ortiz, President of The American Electrology Association, Inc. (AEA), the largest representative organization of professional electrologists in the United States, states “Women should be aware that unusual unwanted hair growth patterns or volume can be cause for some medical concern.
Whether the condition is polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), adrenal hyperplasia, thyroid dysfunction, or other endocrine disturbances, hair growth is often the symptom a woman will address first.“
The Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (southern CA) News, Feb. 4, 2004, cites a long-term study by the Center for Androgen Related Disorders in which Ricardo Azziz, MD, MPH, MBA, Director, notes that although androgen excess is recognized as the most common endocrine disorder among women in their reproductive years, its causes are not always easy to determine.
In a large scale analysis of women with androgen excess, more than 80 percent suffered from hirsutism (excess hair growth), menstrual dysfunction and acne. Because most androgen excess disorders begin around the onset of puberty, most women appear to suffer without intervention. It was noted by researchers that “up to 80 percent of patients are not recognized, evaluated or treated in a timely fashion.“
Electrologists note that women with an excess of androgen grow hair in a much different manner from most other women they see. Their facial and body hair growth could rival that of a man’s.
This masculine hair growth pattern on both the face and body is very worrisome to these clients and much of their energy is spent trying to look as though the hair growth doesn’t exist.
Since professional electrologists are trained to recognize the signs of androgen excess, when a client comes in to address the cosmetic symptoms, they are likely to be referred to their primary care physician or an endocrinologist for evaluation.
While electrology treatments go forward, the cause of the unwanted hair growth can be mitigated through appropriate medical treatment. The impact of having been directed to medical care can greatly benefit many other areas of their lives.

Plasticizers were found in some pizza boxes containing recycled material.

A new test can identify take-away paper-based food containers (such as pizza boxes) that break phthalate safety rules. The phthalates (plasticizers) are present because the containers were made from pulp that contained at least some recycled paper and cardboard.
In Italy, where the test was developed, this use of recycled paper and cardboard for food packaging breaks food safety rules, ScienceDaily said.
Recycling paper and cardboard is a great goal, but it can have its problems. If the original paper is loaded with inks, adhesives and other substances, then these will be passed into the new recycled material.
If that material is used to package food then the food could be exposed to the chemicals from recycling. One chemical of particular concern is diisobutyl phthalate (DIBP). This is commonly found in inks and other chemicals used in printing. It is potentially dangerous because it has a similar structure to androgenic hormones in the human body.
With take-out pizzas, hot food is placed inside the cardboard box, and so there is a high chance that the food will be exposed to any volatile chemicals in the cardboard such as plasticizers as they will enter the headspace of the box. To avoid this contamination, the boxes should be made from unrecycled materials.
Working at the University of Milan, Italy, a team of scientists has developed a test that looks specifically at DIBP. In a paper published recently in Packaging Technology and Science, the researchers report the analysis of boxes purchased from 16 different take-away restaurants in northern Italy.
They found that while some boxes exposed pizza to just over 7 micrograms of DIBP under test conditions, others gave exposure to over 40 micrograms and one to more than 70 micrograms of DIBP. This is a clear indication that the boxes had been manufactured using at least some recycled paper or cardboard.
“Our test can give a standardized measurement of the risk of exposure associated with individual types of boxes,“ says lead author Monica Bononi.
“Safety is a key concern in the food industry, and regulations within Italian law help by setting standards for packaging. Our test could help monitor how well manufacturers are keeping to those standards,“ says co-author Professor Fernando Tateo.