Author: Tom Patriot

Cellular rivalry promotes healthy skin development

Tom Patriot

Not all cells are destined for greatness. Deemed unfit to serve in the body, some are killed off during early development through a process called cell competition. This phenomenon has previously been documented in flies and is now turning out to occur in mammals as well. In a recent study, described in Nature, Rockefeller scientists showed that skin cells in mice engage in two forms of competition, one taking place during early embryonic development and the other occurring just before birth. The researchers believe that this cutthroat cellular conflict is crucial…

Read More

Keep your placenta healthy by exercising while pregnant

Tom Patriot

Over 1.9 billion adults worldwide are overweight or obese, and by 2025 this is projected to increase to 2.7 billion. Obesity significantly raises the risk of developing 11 different types of cancer, stroke, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (1, 2). New research in The Journal of Physiology found a possible explanation for the benefits of maternal exercise on fetal development, in obese mothers: it’s down to improved placental function, which prevents the fetus from growing too big, and also better metabolism in the mothers. The placenta performs…

Read More

Newly identified bacteria-killing protein needs vitamin A to work

Tom Patriot

People who have inadequate vitamin A in their diets are more susceptible to skin infection, yet how that vitamin affects skin immunity has been unclear. In a study published today, UT Southwestern researchers shed some light on that mystery by identifying a previously unknown bacteria-killing protein on the epidermis that requires the vitamin to work. The researchers found that one protein in the resistin-like molecule (RELM) family — RELMα — acts as an antibiotic to rapidly kill bacteria. Both RELMα, which is made by mice, and the corresponding human RELM…

Read More