Atrophy

The results of large clinical trials have led physicians and patients to question the safety of hormone therapy for menopause. In the past, physicians prescribed hormone therapy to improve overall health and prevent cardiac disease, as well as for symptoms of menopause. Combined estrogen/progestogen therapy, but not estrogen alone, increases the risk of breast cancer when used for more than three to five years.

The results of large clinical trials have led physicians and patients to question the safety of hormone therapy for menopause. In the past, physicians prescribed hormone therapy to improve overall health and prevent cardiac disease, as well as for symptoms of menopause. Combined estrogen/progestogen therapy, but not estrogen alone, increases the risk of breast cancer when used for more than three to five years.

The results of large clinical trials have led physicians and patients to question the safety of hormone therapy for menopause. In the past, physicians prescribed hormone therapy to improve overall health and prevent cardiac disease, as well as for symptoms of menopause. Combined estrogen/progestogen therapy, but not estrogen alone, increases the risk of breast cancer when used for more than three to five years.

Atrophy is one of the major age-related changes in the brain. The absence of brain atrophy in elderly individuals reflects deceleration in the process of biological aging. Moreover, results from human twin studies suggest a large genetic influence on the variance of human brain tissue volumes. To investigate the association of brain volumes with exceptional longevity, we tested whether middle-aged to elderly offspring of nonagenarian siblings have larger brain volumes than their spouses using magnetic resonance imaging.

In amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the progressive loss of motor neurons is accompanied by extensive muscle denervation, resulting in paralysis and ultimately death. Upregulation of amyloid beta (A4) precursor protein (APP) in muscle fibres coincides with symptom onset in both sporadic ALS patients and the SOD1(G93A) mouse model of familial ALS.

The emerging research on biomarkers in alcohol dependence has lead to a deeper understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms in alcoholism. The molecular networks and the pathophysiological circuits are complex and not completely unrevealed up to now. One of the most interesting biomarkers described to play an important role in alcohol dependence is the amino-acid homocysteine, which has particularly been linked with brain atrophy and withdrawal seizures.

Long bone and in particular tibia fractures frequently fail to heal. A disturbed revascularisation is supposed to be a major cause for impaired bone healing or the development of non-unions. We aim to establish an animal model, which reliably mimics the clinical situation. Human microvascular endothelial cells (HMEC-1) and primary human osteoblast like cells (POBs) were cultured with different angiogenesis-inhibitors (Fumagillin, SU5416, Artesunate and 3,5,4'-Trimethoxystilbene) released out of poly(D,L-Lactide) (PDLLA) coated k-wires and cell activity was determined.

Vasomotor symptoms and vaginal atrophy are both common menopausal symptoms. Hormone therapy is currently the only FDA-approved treatment for hot flashes. Current recommendations are to use the lowest dose of hormone therapy for the shortest period that will allow treatment goals to be met. Although the reanalysis of the WHI in 2007 by Roussow et al. provided evidence of coronary heart safety for users of hormone therapy under the age of 60 years and within 10 years of the onset of menopause, not all women desire or are candidates for hormone therapy.

The clinical phenotype of Huntington's disease (HD) is far more complex and variable than depictions of it as a progressive movement disorder dominated by neostriatal pathology represent. The availability of novel neuro-imaging methods has enabled us to evaluate cerebral cortical changes in HD, which we have found to occur early and to be topographically selective. What is less clear, however, is how these changes influence the clinical expression of the disease.

Fibromyalgia (FM) is thought to involve abnormalities in central pain processing. Recent studies involving small samples have suggested alterations in gray matter volume (GMV) in brains of FM patients. Our objective was to verify these findings in a somewhat larger sample using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), while controlling for the presence of affective disorders (AD). T1-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI) brain scans were obtained on 29 FM patients with AD, 29 FM patients without AD, and 29 age-matched healthy controls (HCs) using a 3T scanner.