Health tips-New hope for patients with end-stage liver disease

Transplanting their own (autologous) bone marrow-derived stem cells into 48 patients with end-stage liverdisease resulted in therapeutic benefit to a high number of the patients.
Yet, the mechanism by which the infusion of CD34 stem cells improves liver function remains elusive, they said.
According to the study's corresponding author, Mark A. Zern of the University of California Davis Medical Center, Sacramento, CA, the study sought to evaluate the safety and efficacy of transplanting autologous bone marrow-derived CD34+ stem cells in 48 patients, 36 of whom had chronic, end-stage hepatitis C-induced liver disease, and 12 with end-stage autoimmune liver disease.
"For all patients there was a statistically significant decrease in peritoneal cavity fluid, or 'ascites.' There was also clinical and biochemical improvement in a large percentage of patients who received the transplantation," said Zern.
The researchers reported that they obtained "reasonable numbers of CD34+ cells" that were then "amplified and partially differentiated into hepatocyte precursor cells."
"This enabled us to transplant as many as one billion of these cells per patient. The finding of improvement in ascites in a significant number of patients is impressive and somewhat surprising, suggesting that cell transplantation might be clinically significant beyond the improvement in laboratory parameters," explained Zern.
The team also reported that prior to transplantation, the cells were already beginning to develop a hepatocyte phenotype while in culture, suggesting that the cells may have acted as hepatocyte-like cells following engraftment.
The findings were reported in the journal Cell Transplantation.ANI

Health tips-4 hours of TV a day 'raises heart risk'

I cant just believe this, rather no one can believe this "4 hours of TV a day 'raises heart risk". Scientists have found that spending too much leisure time in front of a TV or computer screen dramatically increases the risk for heart disease and premature death from any cause, perhaps regardless of how much exercise one gets.

Study data show that people who devote more than 4 hours each day on screen-based entertainment like watching TV, using the computer or playing video games, are more than twice as likely to have a major cardiac event that involves hospitalization, death or both compared to those who spend less than 2 hours a day.

The research also suggests metabolic factors and inflammation may partly explain the link between prolonged sitting and the risks to heart health.

These associations were independent of traditional risk factors such as smoking, hypertension, BMI, social class, as well as exercise.

The study included 4,512 adults who were respondents of the 2003 Scottish Health Survey. A total of 325 all-cause deaths and 215 cardiac events occurred during an average of 4.3 years of follow up.

The study has been published in the January 2011 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.--ANI