Doc Blog

Researchers at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, have discovered that adiponectin, a protein secreted from adipocytes, is a metabolic link that can explain, in part, the known positive relationship between obesity and both bone mineral density and reduced susceptibility to fractures. This study appears in the December issue of Experimental Biology [...]

Globally every year, obese people waste billions of pounds on food products that ‘imply’ that they aid weight loss, but are totally ineffective, says a nutritional expert on bmj.com. Professor Lean from the University of Glasgow, is hopeful that a new European Union (EU) Directive on Unfair Commercial Practices, adopted this year in UK, will [...]

The battlefield of the future may react differently to combat injuries, providing instant treatment to wounded soldiers even before a medic reaches their side. Impossible? Not if researchers at universities on opposite sides of the country succeed in creating a “field hospital on a chip” - a system worn by every soldier that would detect [...]

Ventricular assist devices, or VADs - surgically-placed mechanical pumps that can support failing hearts or buy time to transplant - are associated with high hospital costs and high rates of early death among Medicare recipients, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center. Their study, appearing in the November 26 issue of the Journal of the [...]

The Secretariat of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) has lost valuable ground by ignoring for years the contribution of long-term concurrent relationships to Africa’s AIDS epidemic, claims an expert ahead of World AIDS Day on bmj.com. UNAIDS may be “contributing to the mystification of AIDS in Africa by promoting a needlessly overcomplicated [...]

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC have been able to effectively repair damaged heart muscle in an animal model using a novel population of stem cells they discovered that is derived from human skeletal muscle tissue. The research team - led by Johnny Huard, PhD - transplanted stem cells purified from human muscle-derived [...]

Caraco Pharmaceutical Laboratories, Ltd. announced today that it has timely submitted its response to the FDA warning letter that was received on October 31, 2008. In the warning letter, the FDA requested a response from Caraco within 15 business days, ending November 24, 2008. As previously disclosed, the warning letter was issued as a follow [...]

If you’re a cancer cell, you want a protein called Bcl-2 on your side because it decides if you live or die. It’s usually a trusted bodyguard, protecting cancer cells from programmed death and allowing them to grow and form tumors. But sometimes it turns into their assassin. Scientists knew it happened, but they didn’t [...]

A new “barcode chip” developed by researchers at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) promises to revolutionize diagnostic medical testing. In less than 10 minutes, and using just a pinprick’s worth of blood, the chip can measure the concentrations of dozens of proteins, including those that herald the presence of diseases like cancer and heart [...]

AstraZeneca has announced it has entered into a settlement agreement in its Pulmicort Respules patent infringement litigation against Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA. The agreement settles the patent infringement litigation filed by AstraZeneca following Teva’s submission to the United States Food & Drug Administration of an Abbreviated New Drug [...]