FINDINGS

Female Mice Stem Cells Better to Build Muscle

Stem cells from female mice regenerate muscle fibers in animals with muscular dystrophy better than cells from males, researchers said.

The scientists made the discovery while testing the use of adult stem cells gathered from muscle in animals with muscular dystrophy. The study is one of the first to study the role of gender in stem cell experimentation, researchers said. They said that more research is needed.

Mice -- and people -- with muscular dystrophy have a genetic mutation that causes the lack of a protein called dystrophin, needed for muscle fiber to function normally. Researchers in several countries hope that by infusing healthy, muscle-building stem cells into people with the disease, they will generate new dystrophin.

When Johnny Huard, director of the stem cell research center at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, and his colleagues injected muscle-derived stem cells into male mice with dystrophy, the female stem cells did better, on average, than the male cells. The research will be published today in the Journal of Cell Biology.

Hispanics More Prone to Advanced Breast Cancer

Hispanic women are almost three times more likely to be diagnosed with advanced breast cancer than non-Hispanic women, independent of factors such as finances and regular health checkups, a University of Colorado and Kaiser Permanente study found. Researchers discovered that even in situations where use of health-care services such as mammography were similar, breast cancer among Hispanic women was more aggressive.

Hispanic women in the study were diagnosed at younger ages than non-Hispanic women on average, and about two times more likely to have larger tumors with characteristics that predict poorer patient outcomes. The study compared demographic characteristics of 139 Hispanic and 2,118 non-Hispanic women with breast cancer to determine if having health insurance affects differences in clinical presentation of the disease. The findings were published online today in Cancer, the medical journal of the American Cancer Society.

-- From News Services