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Tuesday 30 April 2013

Teen Pregnancy Linked To 50% Drop In Breast Cancer Risk

A teen or early pregnancy have been linked to a drop in the risk of breast cancer by 50%, a new study published in BioMed Central's Breast Cancer Research finds.

Researchers found that the Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was reduced in the breast tissue of mice that gave birth, compared to virgin mice among the same age group. Wnt and Notch are two separate pathways of a system which control cellular fate within an organism.

This suggests that pathways are changed in women 20 years or younger who give birth - resulting in a 50% drop in breast cancer risk.

Lead author Mohamed Bentires-Alj, of the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research, said:

"The down-regulation of Wnt is the opposite of that seen in many cancers, and this tightened control of Wnt/Notch after pregnancy may be preventing the runaway growth present in cancer."


It has been known that early pregnancy has a strong protective outcome against breast cancerin humans and rodents, however, exactly why this occurs has been a mystery. 

A separate study presented at the AACR (American Association for Cancer Research) 102nd Annual Meeting in 2011 suggested that women who have given birth, especially early on in life, have an overall reduced risk of breast cancer, compared with women who have not.

Researchers from Basel used micoarray analysis and found that genes involved in the immune system and differentiation were up-regulated after pregnancy, while the activity of genes coding for growth factors decreased.

The activity of Wnt4 was down-regulated after pregnancy. The protein from Wnt4 is a feminizing protein, and not having it encourages an embryo to develop as a boy. 

When the researchers examined Notch, they found that genes regulated by Notch were up-regulated - Notch-stimulating proteins up-regulated and Notch-inhibiting proteins down-regulated.

Wnt/Notch signalling ratio was permanently changed in the basal stem/progenitor cells of mammary tissue of mice due to pregnancy. 

The study authors believe their research begins to shed light on the long-term results of an early pregnancy. Additionally, it leads the way for future research to examine whether inhibitors of the Wnt pathway could possibly be used to mimic the parity-induced protective outcome against breast cancer.

Thursday 25 April 2013

Bangladesh Dhaka building collapse leaves 80 dead



At least 80 people have been killed and many more are feared trapped after an eight-storey building collapsed on the outskirts of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, government officials say.
Frantic efforts are under way to rescue those beneath the debris. Hundreds of people were injured by the collapse.
The army is helping with the rescue operation in the Savar area.
Building collapses are common in Bangladesh where

Saturday 6 April 2013

China bird flu virus found in more markets in Shanghai.

(Reuters) - Chinese authorities have found traces of a new bird flu virus that has killed six people in more areas in Shanghai, state media reported, after authorities slaughtered over 20,000 birds at a large poultry market in the city.


State-run Xinhua news agency said samples of the H7N9 virus were found

N. Korea tells embassies to consider evacuation


North Korea on Friday told foreign embassies to consider the possibility of evacuation if tensions with South Korea and the U.S. continued to escalate.
This was reported by China’s State-run Xinhua news agency even as the South Korean media said