Laboratory Equipment

Light Drinking During Pregnancy Does Not Cause Problems

Light drinking during pregnancy is not linked to adverse behavioral or cognitive outcomes in childhood, suggests a new study published today.

Authors of the study, from Univ. College London Epidemiology & Public Health, collated data from the Millennium Cohort Study, a national study of infants born in the UK between 2000-2002, to assess whether light drinking (up to two units of alcohol per week) in pregnancy was linked to unfavorable developmental outcomes in seven-year-old children.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/04/light-drinking-during-pregnancy-does-not-cause-problems

Exercise During Youth May Reduce Later Fracture Risk

Get out there and regularly kick that soccer ball around with your kids, you may be helping them prevent a broken hip when they are older, say researchers presenting their work at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Specialty Day in Chicago, IL.

“According to our study, exercise interventions in childhood may be associated with lower fracture risks as people age, due to the increases in peak bone mass that occurs in growing children who perform regular physical activity,” says lead author, Bjorn Rosengren, of Skane Univ. Hospital.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/exercise-during-youth-may-reduce-later-fracture-risk

Early Consumption of Carbs Heightens Obesity Risk

Consumption of foods high in carbohydrates immediately after birth programs individuals for lifelong increased weight gain and obesity, a Univ. at Buffalo animal study has found, even if caloric intake is restricted in adulthood for a period of time.

“This is the first time that we have shown in our rat model of obesity that there is a resistance to the reversal of this programming effect in adult life,” explains Mulchand Patel, SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and associate dean for research and biomedical education in the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/early-consumption-carbs-heightens-obesity-risk

Seven-Year-Old is Recovering from Bubonic Plague

The parents of seven-year-old Sierra Jane Downing thought she had the flu when she felt sick days after camping in southwest Colorado. When she had a seizure, her father rushed her to the local hospital in Pagosa Springs. An emergency room doctor who saw Sierra Jane for the seizure and a 107-degree fever late Aug. 24 wasn’t sure what was wrong either, and called other hospitals before the girl was flown to Denver.

There, a pediatric doctor at Rocky Mountain Hospital for Children racing to save Sierra Jane’s life got the first inkling that she had bubonic plague. Jennifer Snow first suspected the rare disease using the girl’s symptoms, a history of where she’d been and an online journal’s article on a teen with similar symptoms.

“If she had stayed home, she could’ve easily died within 24 to 48 hours from the shock of infection,” Snow says. It was the first bubonic plague case Snow and her colleagues had seen.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/09/seven-year-old-recovering-bubonic-plague

Childhood Obesity Increases Cancer Risk

Parents are increasingly conscious of the dangers of childhood obesity. There is a growing recognition of health problems associated with extra pounds, including the risk of diabetes, heart disease and joint and muscle pain.

New research from Tel Aviv Univ. has revealed another significant reason for children to maintain a healthy weight. Ari Shamiss and Adi Leiba of TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sheba Medical Center and his fellow researchers found that obesity in adolescence, defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) in the 85th percentile and above, has a direct link to the incidence of urothelial (bladder and urinary tract) and colorectal cancers in adulthood. According to the American Heart Association, one in three children and teenagers are now considered overweight or obese.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Childhood-Obesity-Increases-Cancer-Risk-072412.aspx

Teen Marijuana Use Risky for Future Children

Mothers who use marijuana as teens— long before having children— may put their future children at a higher risk of drug abuse, new research suggests.

Researchers in the Neuroscience and Reproductive Biology section at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts Univ. conducted a study to determine the transgenerational effects of cannabinoid exposure in adolescent female rats. For three days, adolescent rats were administered the cannabinoid receptor agonist WIN-55, 212-2, a drug that has similar effects in the brain as THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. After this brief exposure, they remained untreated until being mated in adulthood.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Mothers-Marijuana-History-Risky-for-Future-Children-060612.aspx

Mousetrap Used to Hydrate Kids Safely

Instead of building a better mousetrap, a team of Rice Univ. freshmen took a mousetrap and built a better way to treat dehydration among children in the developing world.

“The goal was to regulate the amount of fluid delivered to children so we could prevent over-hydration and under-hydration,” says Melissa Yuan, a member of the IV DRIP (Dehydrated Relief in Pediatrics) team and a mechanical engineering major. “It’s designed to be used in severely underdeveloped parts of the world, where conditions can be pretty primitive and they may not even have electricity.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Mousetrap-Used-to-Hydrate-Kids-Safely-051712.aspx

Mother’s Obesity Linked to Child’s Lowered Cognitive Function

Women who are obese before they become pregnant are at higher risk of having children with lower cognitive function - as measured by math and reading tests taken between ages 5 to 7 years - than are mothers with a healthy pre pregnancy weight, new research suggests.

In this large observational study, pre pregnancy obesity was associated, on average, with a three-point drop in reading scores and a two-point reduction in math scores on a commonly used test of children’s cognitive function.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Mothers-Obesity-Linked-to-Childs-Lowered-Cognitive-Function-050912.aspx

Researchers ID New Childhood Obesity Genes

Genetics researchers have identified at least two new gene variants that increase the risk of common childhood obesity.

“This is the largest ever genome-wide study of common childhood obesity, in contrast to previous studies that have focused on more extreme forms of obesity primarily connected with rare disease syndromes,” says lead investigator Struan Grant, associate director of the Center for Applied Genomics at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. “As a consequence, we have definitively identified and characterized a genetic predisposition to common childhood obesity.”

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-researchers-id-new-childhood-obesity-genes-040912.aspx

Team Makes Child Medical Devices

A team made up of medical researchers and bioengineers from the Univ. of California have worked together to created medical devices specifically designed for children.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news-Team-Makes-Child-Medical-Devices-010412.aspx