Cells

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday cautioned consumers against using quinine for leg cramps, warning that the drug could cause severe side effects, including death. Quinine, sold in this country under the brand name Qualaquin, is approved for treatment of uncomplicated malaria, but has a long history of use as a remedy for leg cramps, especially at night. In many countries, it is sold over the counter. Studies have shown that it can reduce the incidence of cramps by one-third to one-half but that as many as one in every 25 users can suffer serious side effects.

Re "Skilling doesn't deserve a break," Column, May 19 Jeff Skilling, the chief executive of Enron when it defrauded investors before its collapse in 2001, still believes he has the power to extort or bribe his way out of jail. It scares me to think that he might just succeed in having his 24-year prison sentence reduced significantly, confirming that justice is negotiable. Let's drop all pretense here: Skilling is trying to pay his way out of jail, and if he succeeds, he will have reduced our justice system to rubble.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the supplement nitric oxide? Richard Sunland Nitric oxide is a gas naturally found in the body; its function is conveying information between cells. One of its main jobs is increasing blood flow by dilating blood vessels, and that's why it's sometimes given in supplement form to heart patients, orally and intravenously. In at least one study it's been shown to be effective for lowering blood pressure.

Re "Stem cells are made by cloning method," May 16 Cloning a human serves no purpose, so the arguments against making stem cells using a cloning method are ludicrous. On the other hand, cloning organs makes sense - the rest is just jibber-jabber from Luddites. Mike Benbrook El Cajon ALSO: Letters: Dying but not wanting to know Letters: Addiction treatment that works Letters: Election billboard ads may backfire

Until recently, very few people had ever heard of raspberry ketones, the aromatic compounds that give the berries their distinctive smell. Today, health food stores have trouble keeping the capsules or drops of the stuff on their shelves. Almost overnight, an obscure plant compound became the next big thing in weight loss - and all it took was a few words from Dr. Oz. In a February episode of "The Dr. Oz Show," Mehmet Oz told viewers that raspberry ketones were "the No. 1 miracle in a bottle to burn your fat. " Once Oz calls something a "miracle," it doesn't remain obscure for long.

Here is a selection of some new offerings at the prestige end of the market, many predicated on exclusive ingredients and newfangled technology: Super Cream from 3LAB, exclusively at Barneys, joins that brand's high-priced roster but remains its most expensive launch to date. Co-founder Erica Chung attributes the $875 price to the cream's Intelligent Targeting Device technology, which is supposed to drive collagen and elastin to the cells that need it the most. The Bee Venom Mask from Heaven Skin Care became an overnight sensation when word came out that Kate Middleton, wife of England's Prince William, used it. Soon to be available in the U.S., the $560 Limited Edition Golden Bee Venom Mask contains a high concentration of bee venom, which is supposed to have something of a Botox effect on the skin.

Scientists have built a 3-D printer that creates material resembling human tissues. The novel substance, a deceptively simple network of water droplets coated in lipids, could one day be used to deliver drugs to the body -- or perhaps even to replace damaged tissue in living organs. The creation, described in the journal Science, consists of lipid bilayers separating droplets of water -- rather like cell membranes, whose double layers allow the body's cells to mesh with their watery environments while still protecting their contents.

When cancers are treated, tumors may shrink but then come roaring back. Now studies on three different types of tumors suggest a key reason why: The cancers are fueled by stem cells that chemotherapy drugs don't kill. The findings - made by independent research teams that used mice to study tumors of the brain, intestines and skin - could change the approach to fighting cancers in humans, experts said. Properties of these so-called cancer stem cells can be investigated so researchers can devise strategies for killing them off, said Luis F. Parada, a molecular geneticist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas and senior author of one of the studies published Wednesday.

Stem cell therapy may help repair the hearts of patients who have suffered heart attacks, and, according to a new study published Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn., it may not matter whether those stem cells come from the patient or a donor. For decades, common belief was that areas of the heart severely damaged by a heart attack could not be repaired. But the development of advanced cell therapies, in which stem cells or other cell types are injected into the damaged area, have provided new hope that interventions may be possible.

Breathe in, breathe out — it may seem simple, but lungs are devilishly complicated structures, boasting more than 40 different cell types and an intricate network of tiny blood vessels and air sacs. It's no wonder, then, that engineering lungs in the lab, either for transplantation or study, has been extremely challenging. Now two research groups have made major strides in attacking the problem. One has successfully engineered a lung that can sustain a living rat and the other has created a lung-mimicking device for toxicology studies that acts more like a real lung than any earlier efforts, the groups reported Thursday in the journal Science.

A breakthrough in stem cell research has again raised the specter of human cloning. The discovery by a team at Oregon Health and Science University moves the world incrementally closer to that result, but its more immediate effect will be to spur efforts to regenerate healthy tissue for the injured and the ailing. Although it's reasonable to worry about where such a discovery may lead, those concerns shouldn't stop researchers from exploring the restorative properties of stem cells. The promise of stem cells is that they can develop into many different kinds of tissues rather than being locked into a specific cellular fate.

For the first time, scientists have created human embryos that are genetic copies of living people and used them to make stem cells - a feat that paves the way for treating a range of diseases with personalized body tissues but also ignites fears of human cloning. If replicated in other labs, the methods detailed Wednesday in the journal Cell would allow researchers to fashion human embryonic stem cells that are custom-made for patients with Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and other health problems.

For the first half of the 20th century, the cell was a mysterious, unfathomable entity. Nutrients went in and hormones, wastes and other products came out. But what happened in between was anybody's guess. Light microscopes could reveal the rough details of the cell's interior, but not with enough precision to illuminate function. Chemical studies were rudimentary at best. Three men changed that. Albert Claude of the Rockefeller Institute - now University - adapted the electron microscope to image cells, allowing a much higher resolution.

When giant container ships sail into major ports like Los Angeles and Long Beach, it's not just clothing and cars that they deliver. They also carry critters. The specimens - microscopic algae cells or larger castaways, such as eggs of fish or crustaceans - float about in the thousands of tons of water the boats use as ballast. When the ships dump their ballast at port, the species can establish a foothold in foreign lands, often with detrimental consequences to native wildlife. But soon ports may be able to mitigate some of that harm by predicting where invasive species are likely to arrive.

Hope Solo loves her 670,214 Twitter followers -- so much so that she tweeted her personal cellphone number out to them (and the rest of the world) on Wednesday. Oops, wait. Turns out the U.S. soccer goalie doesn't like you guys that much after all. In fact, she thinks you're "fools" for trying to call her old cell number, which is what she actually tweeted out. Or something like that. You fools fall 4anything!Wanted to see how easy it was! Uhad my number but for a second!

Scientists have built a 3-D printer that creates material resembling human tissues. The novel substance, a deceptively simple network of water droplets coated in lipids, could one day be used to deliver drugs to the body -- or perhaps even to replace damaged tissue in living organs. The creation, described in the journal Science, consists of lipid bilayers separating droplets of water -- rather like cell membranes, whose double layers allow the body's cells to mesh with their watery environments while still protecting their contents.

In a bid to make cancer immunotherapy more effective, researchers report they have succeeded in halting the progress of aggressive melanoma in its tracks - at least briefly - in seven patients treated with an army of cloned cancer-fighting immune cells. In one of those patients, the treatment resulted in complete remission of his metastatic melanoma and evidence that his immune system stands ready to fight any return of the cancer after three years. The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, contributes to hopes that a tumor-fighting strategy called immunotherapy can slow, halt or even reverse the growth of a range of cancers - and do so with fewer dangerous side effects.

Researchers have used cardiac stem cells to regenerate heart muscle in patients who have suffered heart attacks, also known as myocardial infarction. The small preliminary study, which was conducted by the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, involved 25 patients who had suffered heart attacks in the previous one and a half to three months.  Seventeen of the study subjects received infusions of stem cells cultured from a raisin-sized chunk of their own heart tissue, which had been removed via catheter.

It would be fair to say that Patient 5 owes his life to medical research. Also known as David Aponte, he was the headlining success story from a recent clinical trial at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. The trial tested a new approach - in which a portion of the immune system is genetically altered and then reintroduced to the body - for treating an otherwise fatal leukemia. But when we celebrate the remarkable achievement made possible by the doctors behind the experimental treatment and the patients who volunteered themselves for research, there are two other guests of honor to include at the party: years and years of basic science, and the public dollars that funded them.

Re "Battle over 'biosimilars,'" Editorial, March 17 I would like to point out several patient safety concerns with "biosimilars," cheaper versions of biologic drugs that are derived from living cells. Although the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's safety adjudications are important, the FDA has been wrong before. Recent withdrawal of one form of the antidepressant bupropion and safety warnings for virtually all blockbuster drugs have occurred. Such mistakes can be more harmful in biosimilars.