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To find out why, Doo Choi and his colleagues at Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea, damaged the spines of 75 rats. One-third were given acupuncture in two locations: Shuigou – between their snout and mouth, and Yanglingquan – in the upper hind leg. Others received no treatment or "simulated acupuncture".

After 35 days, the acupuncture group were able to stand at a steeper incline than the others and walk better. Staining their paws with ink revealed that their forelimb-hindlimb coordination was fairly consistent and that there was very little toe dragging, whereas the control groups still dragged their feet.
Inflamed spines

The rats in the acupuncture group also had less nerve cell death and lower levels of proteins known to induce inflammation after spinal cord injury and make neural damage worse.

One explanation is that sharp needles prompt a stress response that dampens down inflammation. In humans, the inflammation that follows spinal cord injury is known to be responsible for nerve cell death.

Zhen Zheng of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Australia says the results are "very encouraging". But she says we don't yet know if the results will apply to humans.

For example, the acupuncture treatment on the rats was given almost immediately after injury, but most patients don't seek acupuncture until at least three months after damage to their spines.

Po raz pierwszy na świecie urodziły się myszki, których materiał genetyczny pochodzi wyłącznie od dwóch ojców.

Zespół naukowców z Anderson Cancer Center w Houston (Teksas) dokonał tego, stosując skomplikowane manipulacje z komórkami macierzystymi. Dzięki nim udało się wyhodować samice, które produkowały jajeczka z jednym chromosomem X pochodzącym od samca (będącym tu odpowiednikiem matki). W naturze u ssaków każda komórka jajowa zawiera matczyny chromosom X.

Zmodyfikowane samice skrzyżowano następnie ze zwykłymi samcami. W rezultacie na świat przyszło potomstwo - męskie i żeńskie - posiadające wyłącznie materiał genetyczny dwóch samców. Synowie mieli w komórkach normalny dla płci męskiej zestaw chromosomów XY, a córki - typowy dla płci żeńskiej zestaw XX, przy czym każdy z chromosomów pochodził od innego samca. Potomstwo rozwijało się prawidłowo.

To osiągnięcie w przyszłości może pomóc ratować zagrożone gatunki i pomóc jednopłciowym parom doczekać się dziecka - informuje pismo "Biology of Reproduction" (...)
Twórcy sukcesu - amerykańscy badacze - uważają, że osiągniecie może także pomóc w ulepszaniu ras zwierząt hodowlanych.

The corpulent primates serve as useful models, experts say, because they resemble humans much more than laboratory rats do, not only physiologically but in some of their feeding habits. They tend to eat when bored, even when they are not really hungry. And unlike human subjects who are notorious for fudging their daily calorie or carbohydrate counts, a caged monkey’s food intake is much easier for researchers to count and control.

“Nonhuman primates don’t lie to you,” said Dr. Grove, who is a neuroscientist. “We know exactly how much they are eating.”

To allow monitoring of their food intake, some of the obese monkeys are kept in individual cages for months or years, which also limits their exercise. That is in contrast to most of the monkeys here who live in group indoor/outdoor cages with swings and things to climb on.