How Immune Cells Move Against Invaders
UCSF scientists have discovered the unexpected way in which a key cell of the immune system prepares for battle. The finding, they said, offers insight into the processes that take place within these cells and could lead to strategies for treating conditions from spinal cord injury to cancer. The research focused on the neutrophil, the most common type of white blood cell. Like other cells in the immune system, its job is to seek out and destroy bacteria, viruses or other foreign entities that enter the bloodstream or organs.
Childhood Infections Linked To High Risk Of Ischemic Stroke
Common infections in children pose a high risk of ischemic stroke, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association's International Stroke Conference 2012. In a review of 2.5 million children, the researchers identified 126 childhood ischemic stroke cases and then randomly selected 378 age-matched controls from the remaining children without stroke. They discovered that 29 percent of those who suffered a stroke had a medical encounter for infection in the two days preceding the stroke versus one percent of controls during the same dates.
Flu Pandemics May Follow La NiГ a
US scientists propose that flu pandemics follow La NiГ a weather conditions in the equatorial Pacific. The conditions alter bird migration patterns and this promotes new strains of flu (migrating birds are known to be primary pools of human influenza virus). However, since La NiГ a occurs more frequently than global flu pandemics, the researchers suggest other factors must also come into it, and their findings are just one piece of the puzzle. Jeffrey Shaman of the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, and Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health, write about their findings in a paper due to be published in PNAS this week.