Mice

This antioxidant can protect against cancer, heart disease and diabetes. It can lower cholesterol, reduce inflammation and ease pain. Best of all, perhaps, it can help users live 30% longer than they would without it. Resveratrol -- a substance found most notably in red wine -- is sometimes called a "miracle molecule." In labs around the world, scientists are devoting their lives to studying it, and they're writing so many papers about it that mere mortals are hard-pressed to keep up with them all. In short, the evidence is nearly overwhelming that resveratrol can work wonders for your health.

Steady exposure to the electromagnetic radiation given off by cellphones during use may disrupt fetal development, disturb memory and weaken the barrier that protects the brain from environmental toxins, says a welter of new research being presented this week in Istanbul, Turkey. The authors of the studies, published in the past two years, highly preliminary and conducted on rabbits, mice and rats, suggested that the non-ionizing radiation emitted by cellphones and the base stations that broadcast cellphone signals may fundamentally damage cells by means other than the heat that they generate.

Drinking at a young age is simply bad for the brain, according to a growing number of studies. The latest study looks at the relationship between alcohol and the brain in mice. And the results are not pretty. Researchers gave mice alcohol daily for 10 days and later examined their brains with MRI. The mice who were drinkers in youth had smaller forebrain volume and size as adults. The study also found reduced activity in some genes that govern brain chemicals called neurotransmitters 24 hours after an alcohol binge in adolescent mice.

Hexavalent chromium. The term sounds high-tech and slightly ominous to those unfamiliar with it -- and apparently few people are familiar with it. Hexavelent chromium is currently piquing online readers' curiosity. The highly publicized specter of potentially toxic water can do that. So here are some basics.... Hexavelent chromium is, quite obviously, a form of the element chromium. The heavy metal is more commonly called chromium 6 and it's used in the production of stainless steel, pigments and protective coatings.

Reported in Gene Trial Scientists have cured sickle-cell disease in a strain of mice by using a powerful gene therapy method that can replace nearly all diseased blood cells with healthy ones. Patients with sickle-cell disease have blood cells that deform when oxygen levels are low, creating painful blockages of blood vessels and producing organ damage. Researchers from Harvard University and MIT reported in the Dec. 14 issue of Science that they used a modified virus to treat the disease.

U.S. researchers have produced laboratory mice with human brain cells, marking a potential step toward developing treatments for human brain disease such as Alzheimer's but promising to fuel fresh debate over bioengineering. The research was done at California biotechnology company StemCells Inc. "We are not re-creating a human brain.

British scientists have created the first effective mouse model of Down syndrome by inserting more than 90% of human chromosome 21 into mouse cells. Humans with the disease have an extra copy of the chromosome.

A new strain of midget mice that are only half normal size has been developed by Ohio University researchers who accomplished the feat by modifying the gene for a growth hormone and inserting it into the animals, the scientists report today. The researchers say the technique should work for any animal, so it should be possible to develop small rodents, pigs and other laboratory animals that would require less space and food.

Mice implanted with ovaries from much younger mice live to a riper old age, according to UC Davis researchers. Ovaries from female mice aged 11 months (the equivalent, in mouse age, to a 50-year-old woman) were replaced by fresh ones from 2-month-old females. The mice lived 40% longer than mice that had undergone no surgery, the scientists found.

A gene that keeps mice and fruit flies lean might offer a way to prevent obesity and diabetes in people, Texas researchers said this week. The gene, discovered more than 50 years ago in fruit flies, makes mice fat when tweaked one way and thin when manipulated another way, the researchers reported Tuesday in the journal Cell Metabolism. Finding that the gene works the same way in mice and fruit flies means it has evolved from "lower" to "higher" animals.