In his most recent study, Angelos Halaris, MD, PhD, and colleagues found that an inflammatory biomarker, interleukin-6, was significantly higher in the blood of 48 patients diagnosed with major depression than it was in 20 healthy controls. Interleukin-6 has been associated with cardiovascular disease. Halaris presented findings at a joint congress of the World Psychiatric Association and International Neuropsychiatric Association in Athens, Greece. At the congress, Halaris formally proposed creation of a new Psychocardiology subspecialty.

Forty to 60 percent of heart disease patients suffer clinical depression and 30 to 50 percent of patients who suffer clinical depression are at risk of developing cardiovascular disease, Halaris said.

Stress is the key to understanding the association between depression and heart disease. Stress can lead to depression, and depression, in turn, can become stressful.

The body’s immune system fights stress as it would fight a disease or infection. In response to stress, the immune system produces proteins called cytokines, including interleukin-6. Initially, this inflammatory response protects against stress. But over time, a chronic inflammatory response can lead to arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and cardiovascular disease.

It’s a vicious cycle: depression triggers a chronic inflammation, which leads to heart disease, which causes depression, which leads to more heart disease.

Clinical depression typically begins in young adults. “Treating depression expertly and vigorously in young age can help prevent cardiovascular disease later on,” Halaris said.

Physicians often work in isolation, with psychiatrists treating depression, and cardiologists treating cardiovascular disease. Halaris is proposing that psychiatrists and cardiologists work together in a multidisciplinary Psychocardiology subspecialty.

A Psychocardiology subspecialty would raise awareness among physicians and the public. It would forge closer working relationships between psychiatrists and cardiologists. It would formalize multidisciplinary teams with the requisite training and expertise to enable early detection of cardiovascular disease risk in psychiatric patients and psychiatric problems in heart disease patients. And it would provide continuing education to physicians in the safe and correct use of medications in cardiac patients who have psychiatric disorders.

“It is only through the cohesive interaction of such multidisciplinary teams that we can succeed in unravelling the complex relationships among mental stress, inflammation, immune responses and depression, cardiovascular disease and stroke,” Halaris said.

Halaris is Medical Director of Adult Psychiatry and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Check out our new Cardiovascular products

A drug currently approved to treat mouth ulcers has shown promise in animal studies for being a contender in pharmaceutical weight loss. Amlexanox was found by University of Michigan researchers to produce weight loss in obese mice without any change in diet or exercise habits.

For the study, mice fed a high calorie diet until they became obese were injected with amlexanox. The animals lost weight, despite consuming the same amount of calories. The researchers also noted a loss in overall body fat, a decrease in fatty liver, and a reversal of obesity-induced type 2 diabetes. Once taken off the amlexanox injections, however, the mice experienced weight gain.

Amlexanox may work by changing the action of genes that control metabolism versus working as an appetite suppressant.

When the drug was injected in mice, the drug worked by increasing metabolism, not by suppressing appetite.

"One of the reasons that diets are so ineffective in producing weight loss for some people is that their bodies adjust to the reduced calories by also reducing their metabolism, so that they are 'defending' their body weight," says Dr. Alan Saltiel, the lead researcher at the University of Michigan.

 "Amlexanox seems to tweak the metabolic response to excessive calorie storage in mice."

The findings were published Sunday in the journal Nature Medicine. Clinical trials are expected to begin later this year to test the drug's effectiveness in humans.

WSC-2610 MyMiniBLOCK

Do you need only heating function with block incubator? WSC-2610 MyMiniBLOCK is a microprocessor-controlled product using advanced thermoelectric technology. With this technique, more stable and accurate up to 100 C temperature control is achieved. In compact body, very various use such as sample preparation of electrophoresis, DNA/RNA denature and reaction, trans-information of E. coli, etc. can be applied.

WSC-2620 PowerBLOCK

WSC-2620 PowerBLOCK is able to reach set-temperature in mins.
It can reach to the target temperature in about 7min, you can easily use it with different temperature just after using with previously set temperature. Wide and stably accurate temperature setting is from –10 to 100o C. It can be used for very wide applications and used in different temperature settings continuously.

WSC-2630 PowerBLOCK Shaker

Recent news suggests that Canadian Cancer Specialists have found what researchers have labelled a medical first, in that an engineered virus which is injected into the cancer patients blood stream targets cancer cells throughout the body killing them, or at least not letting them get any bigger. Out of 23 patients, who have highly metabolized cancer, which means that the cancer has spread throughout their body and doesn’t show signs of being decreased, have been injected with a cancer fighting virus which hopes to kill the cancer cells. This is not the first time that a cancer virus has been suggested to the public. However, normally with cancer viruses, the virus itself had to be administered and injected directly into the tumor. This is extremely difficult as, tumors are not always stationary within the human body. The anti-cancer virus JX-594 was injected into the blood of 23 patients. 8 out of the 23 patients had the JX-594 replicating itself inside the cancer tumors, and not spreading into other healthy non-cancer cells.

"We are very excited because this is the first time in medical history that a viral therapy has been shown to consistently and selectively replicate in cancer tissue after intravenous infusion in humans.” Said, Professor John Bell, who is the lead research from the University of Ottawa. Professor Nick Lemoine, director of Barts Cancer Institute said, “Viruses that multiply in just tumor cells - avoiding healthy cells - are showing real promise as a new biological approach to target hard-to-treat cancers. This new study is important because it shows that a virus previously used safely to vaccinate against smallpox in millions of people can now be modified to reach cancers through the bloodstream - even after cancer has spread widely through the patient's body. "It is particularly encouraging that responses were seen even in tumors like mesothelioma, a cancer which can be particularly hard to treat."

A new approach mimicking the body’s natural defenses could help treat a therapy-resistant breast cancer

A luminometer for real-time reporter assay with 8 dish incubator and multicolor measurement system

A luminescence monitoring tool to observe gene expressions with bioluminescent markers under long-term culture. Can be used in studies of internal biological clock, circadian rhythms in organisms, gene silencing, drug stimulation, etc. Kronos Dio is equiped with cell culture system within its housing to provide real-time periodical luminescence measurement with multi-color luciferase assay, enabling users to analyse the effects of complex factors influencing gene expression in the cell or the tissue. Internal temperature control (range: 20 to 45 °C) and carbon dioxide circulation allows for convenient cell culture over a long period of time.

Price: 29 500 Euro / 36 000 USD / 27 600 GBP

Installation and training

For the price GENTAUR provides notebook, installation and training (demonstration of basic software and hardware functionality). 6 hours of installation and training is inclusive in the price at no extra cost for USA and Europe. The necessary materials and tools for connecting the device to the Carbone dioxide source at the expense of the customer.

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See also: Cellgraph AB-3000B

Literature

Customer references:

Aaron Rowland, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Toxicology
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
New Mexico State University
1175 North Horseshoe Drive
P.O. Box 30001
Las Cruces, NM 88003-8001

We are wanting to explore the ability of human breast cell lines to exhibit circadian rhythm.  We are also interested in influence of environmental toxicants on circadian rhythm as well as general gene regulation.  I felt that the Kronos dio would be the proper equipment to perform this task as it has a CO2 hook up and can monitor 3 colors at once.  Therefore, I could transfect the BASIC luciferase construct using one color and the gene of interest using a different luciferase and monitor reporter activity in real time.  
Observation that Irritant of Environmental toxin on Human’s breast cell lines reaction and changes.

The quest for longer and healthier life, if not immortality, has been part of the human experience since we evolved the ability to recognize the total annihilation of individual death. Our understanding of the biology of aging at the molecular level is advancing so rapidly that it appears inevitable that another decade or two of life will be enabled before long. A new step in what may be the right direction has just been published by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.

The ravages of aging appear to be related to oxidative stress combined with telomere exhaustion, along with many other known and unknown factors. The subject of the new Berkeley study is a class of proteins called sirtuins that are known to play a central role in regulating aging and longevity in many non-human models (such as mice).

There is good evidence that these proteins also play a similar role in humans. For example, research has shown that, of two variants of the SIRT3 sirtuin protein (known to have strong anti-oxidant properties), humans who live past 90 years of age only have one of the variants in their bodies, the variant that enhances production of SIRT3. The difference between the two variants results from a change of one gene by one mutation, and appears to be sufficient to significantly affect an organism's longevity. This suggests a strong link between SIRT3 and longevity.

The genetics of longevity are quite interesting, but still more interesting would be finding an approach to offset the hand you were dealt at birth, or better yet, to stack the deck. The authors of the Berkeley study decided to see if SIRT3 could rejuvenate blood stem cells extracted from old mice.

Their first step was to see what happened as mice, which did not possess the SIRT3 gene, aged. When young, these "knockout" mice followed the same course of aging as did a set of normal control mice. However, when the mice were two years old (about an average lifespan for a lab mouse), the knockout mice had far fewer blood stem cells than did the control group.

What causes the difference in the course of aging? Young cells have low levels of oxidative stress (the generation of reactive oxygen species during metabolism), low enough that the body's normal anti-oxidants can keep up with the resulting damage. When they get older, they can't keep up, and need a boost of SIRT3 to help them. When there is no SIRT3, the progress of old age occurs sooner and more rapidly.

“When we get older, our system doesn’t work as well, and we either generate more oxidative stress or we can’t remove it as well, so levels build up,” said Chen. “Under this condition, our normal anti-oxidative system can’t take care of us, so that’s when we need SIRT3 to kick in to boost the anti-oxidant system. However, SIRT3 levels also drop with age, so over time, the system is overwhelmed.”

So it appears that age-related degeneration speeds up in the absence of SIRT3 in the system – at least among mice. The Berkeley team decided to see if increasing SIRT3 levels could rehabilitate the blood stem cells. This was done by infusing the blood stem cells with the SIRT3 protein, following which their ability to make new blood cells did indeed return.

Further studies will address if SIRT3-induced rejuvenation will apply to whole organisms, so that they might live longer when so treated, even after experiencing normal aging events.

The BULLET BLENDER^® enables you to homogenize, disrupt, or lyse up to 24 tissue or cell culture samples at a time. Load the samples into standard polypropylene tubes, then place them in the BULLET BLENDER. The "bullets" in the instrument vigorously strike all of the tubes and homogenize your sample in minutes. The Bullet Blender is available with Air Cooling™ to preserve your sample quality!

Applications:

Homogenize Tissue
Liver, Spleen, Kidney, Brain, Adipose, Bladder, Eye, Thyroid, Gallbladder, Muscle, Pancreas, Testes, Meconium, Thymus

Homogenize Tougher Tissue
Heart, Aorta, Tumor, Tail Snips, Colon, Lung, Blood Vessel, Trachea, Cartilage, Epithelium, Stomach, Intestine, Larynx, Mouse Femur, Pharynx, Umbilical Cord, Skin, Uterus

Lyse Cells
E. coli, Mamallian cell culture, Yeast

Homogenize Plant Material
Leaves, Beans, Nuts, Roots

Homogenize Small Organisms
Zebrafish, Drosophila

Whole Cell Isolation
Bacteria, Lymphocytes, Blood Cells

Organelle Isolation
Nucleus, Mitochondria

Click here for more information

More form Gentaur: Order Beads for Bullet Blender

Millions of lives have been changed over the past fourthy years because of advances in medical technology. From stem-cell research to reengineering the way we take our daily medications, all these developments have brought health care into the 21st century. There has been a vast disconnect between these improvements and the manufacturing processes used to provide influenza vaccines to the public.

Shockingly, the method used to produce the influenza vaccine has not been significantly transformed since 1931, when vaccines used for preventive care were first introduced to the public.

Influenza causes between 3,000 and 48,000 deaths and 190,000 hospitalizations in any given season, so it is critical to utilize the most effective production methods to create influenza vaccines to protect our communities. Until recently, all influenza vaccines available in the U.S. were produced by growing and harvesting the virus in chicken eggs. During the time this method has been successful, millions of eggs are needed to produce enough vaccine for our communities each year, requiring production to begin many months in advance. Once the virus strains are selected for the upcoming influenza season by the WHO (World Health Organization), and companies begin manufacturing the vaccine, it can take anywhere between 6 and 9 months to make the vaccine available to physicians or pharmacists.

The egg-based manufacturing process has been working for us to date; however, there is a new process that raises the bar in influenza vaccine manufacturing, is less time-consuming and brings the manufacturing process into the digital age.

Cell-culture technology is the latest production technique for influenza vaccine manufacturing, which involves growing the virus in cells from mammals, rather than chicken eggs. This method offers advantages over the conventional egg-based process:

• Since no eggs need to be collected, vaccines can be produced and available to the public quicker, which is critical in case of a flu pandemic.

• The process does not use any preservatives or antibiotics during production.

Cell-culture technology has been successfully used to manufacture many other vaccines, including those distributed during the H1N1 pandemic, as well as vaccines for polio, rubella and hepatitis A. This technology also has been tried and tested in other countries, which have already approved and use cell-based influenza vaccines abroad. Recently, the FDA gave its stamp of approval to use the technology in influenza vaccines available in the U.S., with an approval of a cell-based seasonal influenza vaccine.

It is important that such a fundamental vaccine that every American ages 6 months and older is advised to receive each year is available using the most cutting-edge technology. I am excited to see how this major advancement will help start a new chapter in the evolution of influenza prevention.

Further research conducted for the annual 2013 Cell Line Development & Engineering conference in Vienna next February, showed major developments in cell culture systems have given biotech's and pharmaceutical companies more flexibility to scale up cells to a high manufacturing quality.The production of high-performing cell lines have been enabled by cell engineering tools and this has only been possible through improvements in cell culture media.

For best accommodation of these new developments, Informa Life Sciences' have expanded the programme to cover the latest in cell line development strategies and improvements in cell culture systems. Alison Porter, Head of Cell Line Development in the Mammalian Cell Culture group at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies (FFDB) clarifies how "For first in human studies with cell line construction on the critical path, it is vital to have optimised the early stages of cell line development. This can improve the future success of a biotherapeutic, both in terms of having the 'best' cell line and meeting increasingly tight timelines."

Further feedback from over 50 industry professionals and academics also highlight additional trends such as high throughput screening of cell lines, Quality by Design applications, cell line development strategies for novel products, analytical tools for product evaluation and bioinformatics applications.

Informa's annual 2013 Cell Line Development & Engineering conference has been designed to address topics essential to improve product development and quality. Susanna Benaim Conference Producer at Informa Life Sciences explains "The event uncovers the essentials in micro-scale system application, CHO genome sequencing, cell line engineering and targeted integration. The conference brings together leading experts from protein engineering, cell biology, cell line development and bioprocess, from both the pharmaceutical industry and academia. Any company specialising in this area is encouraged not to miss out."