child health blog 29

As early as your mid 30's, the size and strength of your muscles begins to decline. The changes are subtle to start -- activities that once came easily are not so easy now -- but by your 70's or 80's, this decline can leave you frail and reliant on others even for simple daily tasks. While the speed of decline varies from person to person and may be slowed by diet and exercise, virtually no one completely escapes the decline. "Even an elite trained athlete, who has high absolute muscle strength will still experience a decline with age," said study author Joe Chakkalakal, Ph.D., assistant professor of Orthopaedics in the Center for Musculoskeletal Research at URMC. Chakkalakal has been investigating exactly how muscle loss occurs in aging mice in order to figure out how humans might avoid it. In a study, published today in  eLife , Chakkalakal and lead author Wenxuan Liu, Ph.D., recent graduate of the Biomedical Genetics Department at URMC, define a new rol...

Fluorescent iron-oxide nanoparticles glow in endothelial cells in an experiment at Rice College. At left, the nanoparticles are evenly distributed among the many microtubules that assist give the cells their form. At proper, after a magnetic discipline is utilized, the nanoparticles are pulled towards one finish of the cells and alter their shapes. The researchers consider this gives a technique to make the endothelial barrier "leaky" sufficient to permit drug molecules to cross by to succeed in tissues. Credit score: Laboratory of Biomolecular Engineering and Nanomedicine/Rice College The endothelial cells that line blood vessels are packed tightly to maintain blood inside and flowing, however scientists at Rice College and their colleagues have found it could be attainable to selectively open gaps in these obstacles simply sufficient to let massive molecules by -- after which shut them once more. Rice bioengineer Gang Bao and collaborato...