- Primordial germinal cells, which are precursors to spermatozoids, apparently have the capacity of turning into embryonic stem cells, according to a study made public Sunday.
Embryonic stem cells can be converted into different types of cells and subsequently tissues, thus offering the hope to fight a number of diseases that have thus far remained incurable.
Researcher from the Georgetown school of medicine and a Washington-based regional transplant consortium known as WRTC have obtained these primordial germinal cells shortly after donors' deaths.
These cells knows as CGPM were separated using a process that involves enzymes.
When the CGPM cells were placed in human embryonic stemcell cultures, they formed colonies that had characteristics similar to stem cells, according to Doctors Martin Dym and Nady Golestaneh, the main authors of the study presented here at a conference of the American Society for Cell Biology.
When these colonies of stem cells were allowed to grow and multiply, they displayed characteristics similar to somite entoblast and ectoblast cells found in an embryo.
This has led the researchers to believe that primordial germinal cells have a great potential for organ regeneration therapies.
Doctors pointed out that one could imagine a day when men could be cured from various diseases through testicular biopsy.
Scientists have the first evidence that those "reprogrammed stem cells" really have the potential to treat disease: They used skin from the tails of sick mice to cure the rodents of sickle cell anemia.
At issue: Turning adult cells into ones that mimic embryonic stem cells, master cells that can turn into any type of tissue. But no one yet knew whether those reprogrammed cells could create functioning tissue just like natural embryonic stem cells can.
Scientists know very little about how to direct an embryo-like stem cell to turn into the just the tissue they need, such as pancreas cells instead of nerve cells, for example.
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Breastfeeding leads to higher IQ in babies with the right gene
Breastfeeding leads to higher IQ in babies with the right gene
Scientists have identified a gene which leads children to have higher IQs if they are breastfed, according to a study released Monday.
The study took a bite out of the nature versus nurture debate by showing that intellectual development is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors.
"There has been some criticism of earlier studies about breastfeeding and IQ that they didn't control for socioeconomic status, or the mother's IQ or other factors," said study co-author Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Duke University and King's College in London.
"Our findings take an end-run around those arguments by showing the physiological mechanism that accounts for the difference."
Researchers examined more than 3,000 breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand and found that the child's IQ was an average of 6.8 points higher if the child had a particular version of a gene called FADS2.
This difference remained after researchers were able to rule out the influence of socioeconomic status, the IQ scores of the mother, birth weight and gestational age as factors.
"The argument about intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century," Moffitt said. "We're finding that nature and nurture work together."
Ninety percent of the children had at least one copy of version of the gene which yielded higher IQ if they were breast-fed.
The IQ scores of the other 10 percent were not influenced by breastfeeding, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The gene was studied because it produces an enzyme found in breast milk which has been associated with higher IQ. The enzyme helps convert dietary fatty acids into the polyunsaturated fatty acids that have been shown to accumulate in the human brain during the first months after birth.
This enzyme and the fatty acids has been added to many infant formulas since the first findings about breastfeeding and IQ appeared a decade ago, but tests have not been able to show whether it has an impact.
The authors suggest that may be because those studies did not account for whether or not the gene was present.
Lab studies on rodents and primates fed supplemental fatty acids have shown enhanced abilities in tests of learning, memory and problem-solving.
Scientists have identified a gene which leads children to have higher IQs if they are breastfed, according to a study released Monday.
The study took a bite out of the nature versus nurture debate by showing that intellectual development is influenced by both environmental and genetic factors.
"There has been some criticism of earlier studies about breastfeeding and IQ that they didn't control for socioeconomic status, or the mother's IQ or other factors," said study co-author Terrie Moffitt, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at Duke University and King's College in London.
"Our findings take an end-run around those arguments by showing the physiological mechanism that accounts for the difference."
Researchers examined more than 3,000 breast-fed infants in Britain and New Zealand and found that the child's IQ was an average of 6.8 points higher if the child had a particular version of a gene called FADS2.
This difference remained after researchers were able to rule out the influence of socioeconomic status, the IQ scores of the mother, birth weight and gestational age as factors.
"The argument about intelligence has been about nature versus nurture for at least a century," Moffitt said. "We're finding that nature and nurture work together."
Ninety percent of the children had at least one copy of version of the gene which yielded higher IQ if they were breast-fed.
The IQ scores of the other 10 percent were not influenced by breastfeeding, according to the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The gene was studied because it produces an enzyme found in breast milk which has been associated with higher IQ. The enzyme helps convert dietary fatty acids into the polyunsaturated fatty acids that have been shown to accumulate in the human brain during the first months after birth.
This enzyme and the fatty acids has been added to many infant formulas since the first findings about breastfeeding and IQ appeared a decade ago, but tests have not been able to show whether it has an impact.
The authors suggest that may be because those studies did not account for whether or not the gene was present.
Lab studies on rodents and primates fed supplemental fatty acids have shown enhanced abilities in tests of learning, memory and problem-solving.
Consumption of Folic Acid known to prevent premature births
Long known to help prevent birth defects, folic acid may also help prevent premature births, new research suggests.
In a large study that included almost 40,000 women, a team of U.S. and Irish researchers found that women who took folic acid supplements for a year or longer before conception had a 70 percent decreased risk of preterm birth between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation.
"There have been all sorts of protocols, lifestyle interventions and medications tested, and nothing has made a difference in preterm births, so this is a really exciting study," said Dr. Katharine Wenstrom, president of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Wenstrom said it's likely that folic acid is regulating certain genes that malfunction to cause early labor. "Now that we know that folic acid makes a huge difference, researchers can look at the different reactions that folic acid causes and see which might be related to preterm labor," she said.
A premature birth is one that occurs before 37 weeks' gestation, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Improved medical knowledge and technology have made survival for these small infants more likely -- of babies born at 28 weeks or after, 90 percent are expected to survive, according to the NIH.
But the earlier a baby is delivered, the greater the risk of serious complications, including bleeding in the brain, infection, delayed growth and intestinal problems, according to the NIH.
The new study included 38,033 women pregnant with one baby. Women who had known pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure, and women pregnant with babies with known chromosomal or other birth defects weren't included in the study.
A baby's gestational age was determined by ultrasound between 10 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Folic acid supplementation history was reported to the researchers by the women.
The researchers found that women who took a folic acid supplement for at least a year prior to becoming pregnant reduced their risk of preterm delivery between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation by 70 percent. A year of folic acid supplementation dropped the risk of delivering during weeks 28 through 32 by 50 percent, according to the study.
"This study saw a huge decrease in spontaneous preterm delivery for women who took folic acid for one year prior to conception. Now we can add prevention of prematurity to the mix of reasons for all women to take an additional folic acid supplement," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes.
Results of the study were to be presented Thursday at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting, in Dallas. Fleischman noted that the current findings are preliminary and need to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
In the meantime, Wenstrom said she believes that everyone -- both male and female -- should take a daily folic acid supplement in addition to a multivitamin containing folic acid.
"Cereal and grain products are fortified with folic acid, but the level of fortification isn't optimal. Folic acid influences so many things. It reduces the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and it prevents birth defects," she said. "It's a simple preventive measure for a variety of severe problems."
The March of Dimes recommends that women take 400 micrograms daily of folic acid before becoming pregnant, and continuing to take folic acid throughout the pregnancy.
In a large study that included almost 40,000 women, a team of U.S. and Irish researchers found that women who took folic acid supplements for a year or longer before conception had a 70 percent decreased risk of preterm birth between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation.
"There have been all sorts of protocols, lifestyle interventions and medications tested, and nothing has made a difference in preterm births, so this is a really exciting study," said Dr. Katharine Wenstrom, president of the Society of Maternal-Fetal Medicine, and a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Wenstrom said it's likely that folic acid is regulating certain genes that malfunction to cause early labor. "Now that we know that folic acid makes a huge difference, researchers can look at the different reactions that folic acid causes and see which might be related to preterm labor," she said.
A premature birth is one that occurs before 37 weeks' gestation, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH). Improved medical knowledge and technology have made survival for these small infants more likely -- of babies born at 28 weeks or after, 90 percent are expected to survive, according to the NIH.
But the earlier a baby is delivered, the greater the risk of serious complications, including bleeding in the brain, infection, delayed growth and intestinal problems, according to the NIH.
The new study included 38,033 women pregnant with one baby. Women who had known pregnancy complications, such as preeclampsia or high blood pressure, and women pregnant with babies with known chromosomal or other birth defects weren't included in the study.
A baby's gestational age was determined by ultrasound between 10 and 14 weeks of pregnancy. Folic acid supplementation history was reported to the researchers by the women.
The researchers found that women who took a folic acid supplement for at least a year prior to becoming pregnant reduced their risk of preterm delivery between 20 and 28 weeks of gestation by 70 percent. A year of folic acid supplementation dropped the risk of delivering during weeks 28 through 32 by 50 percent, according to the study.
"This study saw a huge decrease in spontaneous preterm delivery for women who took folic acid for one year prior to conception. Now we can add prevention of prematurity to the mix of reasons for all women to take an additional folic acid supplement," said Dr. Alan Fleischman, senior vice president and medical director of the March of Dimes.
Results of the study were to be presented Thursday at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine annual meeting, in Dallas. Fleischman noted that the current findings are preliminary and need to be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.
In the meantime, Wenstrom said she believes that everyone -- both male and female -- should take a daily folic acid supplement in addition to a multivitamin containing folic acid.
"Cereal and grain products are fortified with folic acid, but the level of fortification isn't optimal. Folic acid influences so many things. It reduces the risk of stroke, cardiovascular disease, and it prevents birth defects," she said. "It's a simple preventive measure for a variety of severe problems."
The March of Dimes recommends that women take 400 micrograms daily of folic acid before becoming pregnant, and continuing to take folic acid throughout the pregnancy.
Glowing Cloned Cats
SEOUL (AFP) - - South Korean scientists have cloned cats by manipulating a fluorescent protein gene, a procedure which could help develop treatments for human genetic diseases, officials said Wednesday.
In a side-effect, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.
A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.
"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned," the ministry said in a statement.
"The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," it added.
The cats were born in January and February. One was stillborn while two others grew to become adult Turkish Angoras, weighing 3.0 kilogrammes (6.6 pounds) and 3.5 kilogrammes.
"This technology can be applied to clone animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," the leading scientist, Kong, told AFP.
"It will also help develop stemcell treatments," he said, noting that cats have some 250 kinds of genetic diseases that affect humans, too.
Working with mice but using human cells, a team led by Yvan Torrente of the University of Milan, Italy showed that they could spark the most common form of the muscle-wasting disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and then reverse it, offering hope to millions of sufferers world-wide.
They also showed that a DMD sufferer's own cells might be used for the therapy, reducing the possibility of rejection.
DMD is a hereditary affliction in which the gene which helps synthesize the key muscle protein dystrophin is mutated. Dystrophin is essential to preventing damage to the muscles as they are used, and so with the presence of the defective gene, its production is disturbed and the muscles deteriorate.
In their experiment, Torrente and his team obtained muscle stem cells, labelled CD133+, from human DMD patients. The cells were implanted into mice where they generated defective muscle tissue resembling that in the human DMD patients.
The researchers then took more muscle stem cells from the humans and repaired the damaged dystrophin gene in them, so that dystrophin production would be normalized.
Those cells were implanted in the same mice, and began producing healthy muscle tissue, helping the mice begin to recover from the induced DMD.
"These data demonstrate that genetically engineered blood or muscle-derived CD133+ cells represent a possible tool for future stem cell-based autograft applications in humans with DMD," Torrente said in a summary of the research.
"Additional research will substantially enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this effect, and may lead to the improvement of gene and cell therapy strategies for DMD," he added.
The research is published in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
In a side-effect, the cloned cats glow in the dark when exposed to ultraviolet beams.
A team of scientists led by Kong Il-keun, a cloning expert at Gyeongsang National University, produced three cats possessing altered fluorescence protein (RFP) genes, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.
"It marked the first time in the world that cats with RFP genes have been cloned," the ministry said in a statement.
"The ability to produce cloned cats with the manipulated genes is significant as it could be used for developing treatments for genetic diseases and for reproducing model (cloned) animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," it added.
The cats were born in January and February. One was stillborn while two others grew to become adult Turkish Angoras, weighing 3.0 kilogrammes (6.6 pounds) and 3.5 kilogrammes.
"This technology can be applied to clone animals suffering from the same diseases as humans," the leading scientist, Kong, told AFP.
"It will also help develop stemcell treatments," he said, noting that cats have some 250 kinds of genetic diseases that affect humans, too.
Working with mice but using human cells, a team led by Yvan Torrente of the University of Milan, Italy showed that they could spark the most common form of the muscle-wasting disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and then reverse it, offering hope to millions of sufferers world-wide.
They also showed that a DMD sufferer's own cells might be used for the therapy, reducing the possibility of rejection.
DMD is a hereditary affliction in which the gene which helps synthesize the key muscle protein dystrophin is mutated. Dystrophin is essential to preventing damage to the muscles as they are used, and so with the presence of the defective gene, its production is disturbed and the muscles deteriorate.
In their experiment, Torrente and his team obtained muscle stem cells, labelled CD133+, from human DMD patients. The cells were implanted into mice where they generated defective muscle tissue resembling that in the human DMD patients.
The researchers then took more muscle stem cells from the humans and repaired the damaged dystrophin gene in them, so that dystrophin production would be normalized.
Those cells were implanted in the same mice, and began producing healthy muscle tissue, helping the mice begin to recover from the induced DMD.
"These data demonstrate that genetically engineered blood or muscle-derived CD133+ cells represent a possible tool for future stem cell-based autograft applications in humans with DMD," Torrente said in a summary of the research.
"Additional research will substantially enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this effect, and may lead to the improvement of gene and cell therapy strategies for DMD," he added.
The research is published in the December issue of the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Young Chimpanzees have a memory capacity far better than adult Humans
TOKYO (AFP) - - Young chimpanzees have an extraordinary memory that is far better than that of adult humans, a Japanese study said Tuesday.
The research, published in the US journal Current Biology, said young chimpanzees can remember numbers flashed on a computer screen after just one glance.
The researchers, led by professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, said the findings suggested that humans lost a similar ability in order to gain other skills.
"The capacity of the brain is limited. Perhaps humans gave up older skills in order to acquire new skills, such as languages," Matsuzawa told Japanese media.
"Maybe the same is true as youngsters become adults," he said, noting that chimps' memory capability declined with age.
The young chimps are considered to have "eidetic imagery," or the capability to retain an accurate, detailed image of a complex scene or pattern.
In the multiyear study, the team looked at three pairs of chimpanzees -- three mothers and their offspring born in 2000 -- and tested them against nine human university students.
The apes were taught the order of single-digit Hindu-Arabic numerals and then tested on how they could remember them when displayed in random combinations.
The team flashed the numbers "1" through "9" on a screen at various time intervals -- 0.65 seconds, 0.43 seconds and 0.21 seconds.
The numbers were then replaced by blank squares and the subjects were asked to use the touch-screen to mark the original order.
The young chimpanzees performed better than the university students in both speed and accuracy even when they are interrupted by loud noises, the study said.
"Humans were slower than all of the three young chimpanzees in the response," it said. "In general, the performance of the three young chimpanzees was better than that of the three mothers."
The study is the latest confirming the high intelligence of chimpanzees, who are among humans' closest relatives.
Washoe, a chimp who could communicate 250 words in sign language and was considered the first animal to crack the language barrier with humans, died at age 42 in October in the United States.
The research, published in the US journal Current Biology, said young chimpanzees can remember numbers flashed on a computer screen after just one glance.
The researchers, led by professor Tetsuro Matsuzawa of the Primate Research Institute at Kyoto University, said the findings suggested that humans lost a similar ability in order to gain other skills.
"The capacity of the brain is limited. Perhaps humans gave up older skills in order to acquire new skills, such as languages," Matsuzawa told Japanese media.
"Maybe the same is true as youngsters become adults," he said, noting that chimps' memory capability declined with age.
The young chimps are considered to have "eidetic imagery," or the capability to retain an accurate, detailed image of a complex scene or pattern.
In the multiyear study, the team looked at three pairs of chimpanzees -- three mothers and their offspring born in 2000 -- and tested them against nine human university students.
The apes were taught the order of single-digit Hindu-Arabic numerals and then tested on how they could remember them when displayed in random combinations.
The team flashed the numbers "1" through "9" on a screen at various time intervals -- 0.65 seconds, 0.43 seconds and 0.21 seconds.
The numbers were then replaced by blank squares and the subjects were asked to use the touch-screen to mark the original order.
The young chimpanzees performed better than the university students in both speed and accuracy even when they are interrupted by loud noises, the study said.
"Humans were slower than all of the three young chimpanzees in the response," it said. "In general, the performance of the three young chimpanzees was better than that of the three mothers."
The study is the latest confirming the high intelligence of chimpanzees, who are among humans' closest relatives.
Washoe, a chimp who could communicate 250 words in sign language and was considered the first animal to crack the language barrier with humans, died at age 42 in October in the United States.
- For lovers of boiled peanuts, there's some good news from the health front. A new study by a group of American researchers found that boiled peanuts bring out up to four times more chemicals that help protect against disease than raw, dry or oil-roasted nuts.
Lloyd Walker, chair of Alabama A&M University's Department of Food and Animal Sciences who co-authored the study, said these phytochemicals have antioxidant qualities that protect cells against the risk of degenerative diseases, including cancers, diabetes and heart disease.
"Boiling is a better method of preparing peanuts in order to preserve these phytochemicals," Walker said.
The study will appear in Wednesday's edition of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The other co-authors in the study are A&M researchers Yvonne Chukwumah and Martha Verghese, as well as University of Alabama in Huntsville researcher Bernhard Vogler.
Walker said peanuts and other plants use phytochemicals for things such as helping avoid disease and insect attacks.
"These things are not nutrients; at the same time they have health benefits to humans," he told The Birmingham News. "The trick is to keep those health benefits, not to process them out of the foods."
According to Walker, water and heat penetrate the nuts, releasing beneficial chemicals to a certain point. Overcooking the nuts destroys the useful elements.
Lloyd Walker, chair of Alabama A&M University's Department of Food and Animal Sciences who co-authored the study, said these phytochemicals have antioxidant qualities that protect cells against the risk of degenerative diseases, including cancers, diabetes and heart disease.
"Boiling is a better method of preparing peanuts in order to preserve these phytochemicals," Walker said.
The study will appear in Wednesday's edition of the American Chemical Society's Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The other co-authors in the study are A&M researchers Yvonne Chukwumah and Martha Verghese, as well as University of Alabama in Huntsville researcher Bernhard Vogler.
Walker said peanuts and other plants use phytochemicals for things such as helping avoid disease and insect attacks.
"These things are not nutrients; at the same time they have health benefits to humans," he told The Birmingham News. "The trick is to keep those health benefits, not to process them out of the foods."
According to Walker, water and heat penetrate the nuts, releasing beneficial chemicals to a certain point. Overcooking the nuts destroys the useful elements.
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Stroke causes brain damage within 3 minutes according to study
VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) - Strokes cause brain damage within three minutes, scientists reported Thursday, casting doubt on the common public perception that all strokes can be medically treated within three hours.
The findings show that prevention is the best strategy for one of the top killers in the developed world, said Dr. Tim Murphy, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia in this Western Canadian city.
"There's a lot of thinking, 'if I've had a stroke I've got to get to the hospital and I'll be OK as long as I get there in three hours," Murphy told AFP.
Some people can be helped within that time, but "I'm saying, there are structural changes that happen very early on, and so the best thing is to manage risk factors and alter lifestyle," Murphy said.
About 80 percent of strokes are ischemic, and are caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, which helped to fund the research.
Such strokes are most often treated by clot-busting drugs (trombolytic therapy), if given in hospital within three hours.
"But the reality is, not everyone is a candidate for clot busting drugs, they don't always work," said Murphy.
Murphy said researchers induced strokes in laboratory mice by blocking blood flow to the brains of the animals. At the same time, they used a high-tech imaging technique, two-photon excitation microscopy, to create a "movie" that revealed the impact.
The mice experienced a "massive electrical discharge, called ischemic depolarizations, a wave of activity that spreads across the brain," and then experienced swelling in brain nerve cells, called neurons, said Murphy.
said Murphy. "After a stroke they look like sausages (or) like beads on a string, and there's no neuronal activity."
Murphy said research shows quickly replacing the blood flow to the lab mice can reverse most nerve-cell damage, but some six percent of the connections can never return to normal.
The three-minute window before brain damage from a stroke doesn't give people enough time to even call for help, said Murphy. "We can't treat in three minutes."
But the findings may help people undergoing surgery that can trigger ischemic stroke, he said, because the three-minute window shows the urgent need for preventive measures.
Risk factors for stroke include smoking, being overweight, physical inactivity, alcoholism, diabetes, stress and cholesterol, said the foundation.
Strokes are the fourth leading cause of death in Canada, striking as many as 50,000 people and killing 16,000 annually in a population of 3.3 million.
Murphy was the lead author, with Ping Li, Kellen Betts, and Richard Liu, on the study published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience.
The findings show that prevention is the best strategy for one of the top killers in the developed world, said Dr. Tim Murphy, a neuroscientist at the University of British Columbia in this Western Canadian city.
"There's a lot of thinking, 'if I've had a stroke I've got to get to the hospital and I'll be OK as long as I get there in three hours," Murphy told AFP.
Some people can be helped within that time, but "I'm saying, there are structural changes that happen very early on, and so the best thing is to manage risk factors and alter lifestyle," Murphy said.
About 80 percent of strokes are ischemic, and are caused by a clot blocking blood flow to the brain, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, which helped to fund the research.
Such strokes are most often treated by clot-busting drugs (trombolytic therapy), if given in hospital within three hours.
"But the reality is, not everyone is a candidate for clot busting drugs, they don't always work," said Murphy.
Murphy said researchers induced strokes in laboratory mice by blocking blood flow to the brains of the animals. At the same time, they used a high-tech imaging technique, two-photon excitation microscopy, to create a "movie" that revealed the impact.
The mice experienced a "massive electrical discharge, called ischemic depolarizations, a wave of activity that spreads across the brain," and then experienced swelling in brain nerve cells, called neurons, said Murphy.
said Murphy. "After a stroke they look like sausages (or) like beads on a string, and there's no neuronal activity."
Murphy said research shows quickly replacing the blood flow to the lab mice can reverse most nerve-cell damage, but some six percent of the connections can never return to normal.
The three-minute window before brain damage from a stroke doesn't give people enough time to even call for help, said Murphy. "We can't treat in three minutes."
But the findings may help people undergoing surgery that can trigger ischemic stroke, he said, because the three-minute window shows the urgent need for preventive measures.
Risk factors for stroke include smoking, being overweight, physical inactivity, alcoholism, diabetes, stress and cholesterol, said the foundation.
Strokes are the fourth leading cause of death in Canada, striking as many as 50,000 people and killing 16,000 annually in a population of 3.3 million.
Murphy was the lead author, with Ping Li, Kellen Betts, and Richard Liu, on the study published this month in the Journal of Neuroscience.
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