Discoveries
Research Briefs
A mast-er regulator
Mast cells—the cells responsible for making
allergy sufferers miserable—have important,
beneficial roles to play in tissue transplants,
DMS immunologists recently reported in
Nature. Lead researcher Randolph Noelle,
Ph.D., and his team found that
mast cells regulate specific T-cells
that are "essential to establish and
sustain self-tolerance" of a transplant. "Even
though recent studies have underscored the
plasticity of mast cells in regulating acquired
immune responses," Noelle and colleagues
wrote, the finding "that mast cells may be instrumental
in orchestrating TReg-cell-mediated
peripheral tolerance is unprecedented."
Talk therapy
Just three phone calls a year from a nurse-educator
can significantly improve emotional
and physical functioning in patients with
chronic pain and psychosocial problems.
That was the primary finding of a controlled
trial by researchers in DMS's psychiatry
department. The nurseeducators
assessed patients' pain,
psychosocial problems, and treatment preferences;
reviewed self-management strategies
with them; provided problem-solving approaches;
and gave rapid feedback to the patients'
primary-care physicians. The paper
was published in Annals of Family Medicine.
Fat chance
One could say that breast cancer cells are addicted
to fat—or, rather, to a protein called
S14 that allows the cells to manufacture their
own fat. "This makes sense, as fat is a crucial
fuel for breast cancers," explains William
Kinlaw, M.D., an associate professor of
medicine at Dartmouth. He recently published
three papers revealing potential for
S14 as a new anticancer target. "We're
now working to examine this idea rigorously
in cancer-prone mice engineered to lack
S14 in the mammary gland," adds Kinlaw,
"and to find areas on the S14 protein that
might be suitable for attack with a drug."
Brain teaser
Exposure to nonylphenol—a prevalent environmental
pollutant derived from herbicides,
pesticides, polystyrene plastics, and paints—may harm a developing brain, a team of Dartmouth
researchers recently reported.
"Our results suggest that this environmental
estrogen, if present at elevated
levels, . . . may have deleterious effects
on neuronal differentiation," wrote Leslie
Henderson, Ph.D., et al. in the journal Endocrinology.
"Because nonylphenol bioaccumulates,
our results may be broadly applicable
to a wide range of . . . terrestrial species
that are higher in the food chain," not just
the aquatic organisms they studied.
Seek and ye shall find
DMS researchers have shown once again
that when it comes to cancer, the harder you
look, the more you find. "The incidence of
thyroid cancer in the United States more
than doubled over the past 30 years,"
wrote Louise Davies, M.D., and H.
Gilbert Welch, M.D., M.P.H., in the Journal
of the American Medical Association.
But most of the cancers were two centimeters
or smaller, and "mortality [from thyroid
cancer] remained stable during this period,"
suggesting "that increased diagnostic
scrutiny has caused [the] apparent increase."
Etude in D minor
Watchful waiting, though a time-honored
practice for many conditions, may not be the
best choice for patients with minor depression
who seek help. Only 9% to 13% of patients
improved after a month of watchful
waiting in a small study conducted
by Dartmouth psychiatrists and psychologists.
The findings also suggest
that encouraging "regular engagement in
active pleasant events" and discouraging
"avoidant coping styles" may be beneficial interventions.
"Developing evidence-based
self-help materials along with aggressive dissemination
measures could have a significant
impact," they concluded in their paper, published
in General Hospital Psychiatry.
Patient compliance is vital in clinical trials. Of 23 sites in the National Lung Screening Trial, which is comparing x-rays with spiral CT scans, DHMC has one of the highest compliance rates.
The Association of American Medical Colleges reported that DMS's Department of Microbiology and Immunology ranks 6th out of 126 medical schools in research income per faculty member.
A paper in the electronic edition of the journal Science by DMS geneticist Jay Dunlap, Ph.D., and colleagues has suggested the cellular clock has an anticancer as well as a time-keeping role.
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