Fast foods tend to boost fetal growth

Pregnant women who consume trans fats from snack foods, fast food and other less-than-ideal fare may give birth to bigger babies, according to a US study.

The study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, centered on nearly 1,400 pregnant women. It found that the higher the woman's intake of trans fats - which raise "bad" LDL cholesterol, but also lower heart-healthy HDL cholesterol - during the second trimester of pregnancy, the larger her newborn was.

The study did not prove that trans fats alone boost fetal growth, and if they did, it is unclear how harmful that could be. But there are risks to having a larger-than-normal newborn, says lead researcher Juliana Cohen, of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

Big babies may have to be delivered by Cesarean-section and studies have found that they may have increased risks of diabetes and heart disease later in life, Cohen adds.

"It's prudent to limit trans fats in your diet anyway. Pregnant women may want to think about how (the fats) could affect fetal growth as well," she says.

Cancer diagnosis leaves scars for life

A cancer diagnosis can leave lasting psychological scars akin to those inflicted by war, with the impact in some cases lasting for years, US researchers found in a study.

More than a decade after being told they had the disease, nearly four out of 10 cancer survivors said they were still plagued by symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, says lead researcher Sophia Smith from the Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, North Carolina.

Those symptoms included being extra jumpy, having disturbing thoughts about the cancer and its treatment, or feeling emotionally numb toward friends and family.

The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, is based on a survey of 566 patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a relatively common kind of cancer.

The new survey shows that low-income people are extra vulnerable to the psychological impact of living with cancer.

Enzyme find may help treat infertility

Scientists have discovered an enzyme that acts as a "fertility switch" and say their findings could help treat infertility and miscarriage and may also lead to new contraceptives.

A study in the journal Nature Medicine reports that researchers at Imperial College London have found that high levels of a protein called SGK1 are linked with infertility, while low levels of it make a woman more likely to have a miscarriage.

Enzymes are proteins that catalyze, or increase the rates of, chemical reactions.

Jan Brosens, who led the study at Imperial and is now at Warwick University, says its results suggest new fertility and miscarriage treatments could be designed around SGK1.

"I can envisage that in the future, we might treat the womb lining by flushing it with drugs that block SGK1 before women undergo IVF (in-vitro fertilization)," he says.

"Another potential application is that increasing SGK1 levels might be used as a new method of contraception."

Experts claim better stem cell methods

British scientists have developed a new stem cell technique for growing working liver cells that could eventually avoid the need for costly and risky liver transplants.

A team of researchers led by the Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge used cutting-edge methods to correct a genetic mutation in stem cells derived from a patient's skin biopsy, and then grew them into fresh liver cells.

By putting the new liver cells into mice, they showed they were fully functioning.

"We have developed new systems to target genes and ... correct ... defects in patient cells," says Allan Bradley, director of the Sanger Institute.

At a briefing about the work, Bradley says the technique - the first success of its kind - leaves behind no trace of the genetic manipulation, except for the gene correction.

"These are early steps, but if this technology can be taken into treatment, it will offer great possible benefits for patients," he adds.

Reuters