Can Scientists Create Healthier Foods?

In the article "Can Scientists Create Healthier Foods?" researchers are trying to figure out a way to make lower calorie foods without detracting from flavor or texture. It talks about how humans were a hunter gatherer type people originally who craved the same sweet and salty kinds of foods that we crave today. The only difference is that hunter gatherers had to find their food and sometimes food was scarce. Today we have a less active lifestyle and the unhealthy foods are more abundant than ever.

Researchers at the Nestle Research Center are studying ways to increase sugars perceived sweetness. They say that "most people swallow up to 90 percent of a food’s sugar before ever tasting it". Researchers are working on a way to alter sugars structure so that it will dissolve more quickly in water or saliva. Their discoveries could allow the company to use up to 40% less sugar, without taking away any value from the taste or texture of the food. They want to maximize the expression of flavor in order to reduce the overall use of the food

I chose this article because health and food is something that is important to me. What a person eats is a major part of their day to day life. I often struggle with the internal battle of choosing healthy gross foods or delicious unhealthy foods. The article did a good job of laying out what the question was that they were researching, and they had clear evidence and explanations to explain their reasoning. Our society especially in America is in a health crisis. With so much sugar, fat, and salt in our diet we are at risk for a lot of health problems like heart disease. Creating foods that taste the same but have better proportions of sugars and salts, could really make a difference in our society.

Diabetics Benefit by Biggest Meal Early

In the article titled "Diabetics Benefit by Biggest Meal Early", it discusses a study done to see whether a big breakfast or big dinner helps to control type 2 diabetics' glucose levels.  The study was done by researchers from Tel Aviv University in Israel and Lund University in Sweden, and other institutions as well.

The study starts with eighteen adult volunteers all having type 2 diabetes , ten being women and eight being men.  The average age of the adults was 57.8 +/- 4.7.  The participants were chosen by a coin flip to see whether they would have the big or small breakfast diet.  The big breakfast diet included a 700-calorie breakfast, 600-calorie lunch, and a 200 calorie dinner.  The big dinner diet was the exact opposite with a 200-calorie breakfast-600-calorie lunch, and a 700 calorie dinner.  Once the different groups completed two weeks of their diet, they switched their meal plans.  As a result of this study, those who had the big breakfast had much better glucose and insulin levels than those who had the big dinner.  Insulin was 11% higher in those who had a bigger breakfast than those who had a bigger dinner.  Glucose levels were lower by 21-25% after the big breakfast diet than the big dinner diet.   The study showed that the big breakfast had an overall better benefit for type 2 diabetics than the big big dinner.

This article is of interest to me because a couple of years ago, my little brother was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  Even though this study is abut type 2 diabetics, I still like to read and understand how diabetes can be helped and treated.  New ways of trying to better the lives of diabetics is very important to their health and safety.  I know it's hard for my little brother having to check his blood sugar and give himself insulin all the time.  Any research that can help is much appreciated.

The Human Body has a New Organ

By Rachel Washburn

The news during the week of January 3rd, 2017 was filled with headlines of: A brand-new human organ has been classified¹, The human body’s 79^th organ², Meet your newest organ³, A new organ you didn’t know you had⁴, and Scientists discover a new organ in the human body⁵. It’s not every day that the human body gets a new organ. I am fascinated with the field of anatomy and physiology so I read all these articles, and continued on to read the paper⁶ behind it all: The mesentery: structure, function, and role in disease by Coffey and O’Leary.  So, what is the mesentery?

Located in the human abdominal cavity with the digestive organs are layers of tissue called the mesentery. Until recently, the mesentery has remained a relatively ignored part of human anatomy.  Research through 1879 from Leonardo Da Vinci’s drawings to surgical sketches to the Austrian anatomist Carl Toldt’s findings of mesenteric-digestive system structure supported the idea that the mesentery is continuous tissue. Yet, the research of surgeon Sir Fredrick Treves has been the preferred hypothesis through today, stating that the mesentery is a fragmented structure only found in some parts of the digestive tract. In fact, my 2015 human anatomy text book⁷ describes the mesentery as disjointed double-sheeted peritoneal membranes attached to some specific parts of the intestines. This prominent hypothesis, which has been around since 1885, has been refuted by current research. New findings now support the idea of a continuous mesentery, and a new hypothesis: the mesentery is an organ.

Figure 1: Diagram of mesentery structure

The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology 2016 1, 238-247DOI: (10.1016/S2468-1253(16)30026-7

The mesentery is discovered to be continuous only when thorough investigation through dissection was applied. Contiguity was further confirmed with analyses from the Visible Human Project data sets, which is a database that contains anatomically correct and detailed images of human male and female normal anatomy. The disconnected mesentery hypothesis didn’t fit with surgical reference texts, and radiological anatomical maps have determined its continuous structure. Now radiologists can ascertain true mesenteric abnormalities instead of viewing normal mesenteric structure as an abnormality. Overlap of intestinal connective tissue and mesenteric connective tissue was found to be the interface between the intestine and the body environment. The mesentery was found to be innervated by the parasympathetic and enteric nervous systems, but further research is needed in this area to determine the extent of the innervation and how this affects the organ’s function.

With the reclassification of the mesentery as an organ, more well-defined surgical nomenclature can be developed to better standardize and notate surgery, to provide clearer comparisons of surgeries, and to clarify anatomical and surgical instruction. The new map of the mesentery’s flexural anatomy simplifies colorectal surgical specifications and aspects, with newly proposed labeling of the now-continuous fascia and tissues. Parts of mesenteric tissue were labeled as these fascia, but have been found to be epithelial tissue making the mesentery the largest mesothelium in the body.

Figure 2: Relationship of mesentery, intestines/colon, fascia, and peritoneum

The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology 2016 1, 238-247DOI: (10.1016/S2468-1253(16)30026-7)

Furthermore, this reclassification brings with it a new field of study: mesenteric science. Mesenteric science will standardize and consolidate research done on the mesentery, which has previously been completed under many unrelated topics. Additionally, this new field of study will have more focus, more funding, and more insight into health, disease, and autoimmunity than ever before completed on the mesentery.

The discovery of the continuous structure of the mesentery sheds light on more of its functions. As known before, the mesentery suspends and keeps the intestines in place during movement to prevent intestinal torsion or collapsing. The mesentery also keeps intestinal transit operational and suspends the colon to maintain its shape and proper function. New research on mesenteric structure now supports that the mesentery samples intestinal environment to deliver an immune response if necessary. The mesentery also produces C-reactive protein, which regulates fat and carbohydrate metabolism and may also contribute to inflammatory and coagulation regulation. 

Better understanding of the mesentery structure allows scientist and medical doctors to better understand mesenteric function. In turn, abnormalities can be identified and used to find relationships to diseases. With the new map of continuous mesentery structure, doctors have found that intestinal torsion and hernias could be caused by incomplete fetal development of the mesentery. Fatalities from abdominal crisis are now associated with malrotation of the mesentery during embryological development. The discovery that the mesentery and the small intestines are attached by lymphatics unveiled an avenue of how intestinal tumors can spread. Mesenchymal cells responsible for Crohn’s disease extend from the mesentery into other intestinal areas and are typical in the adipose wrapping of the mesentery. The mesentery has been found to contribute greatly to visceral fat and may have ties in obesity, diabetes, autoimmunity, and metabolic diseases. Identifying these abnormalities allow researchers to find better avenues of treatment.

I struggle with an autoimmune disease, and upon reading this paper, I was fascinated by the implications reclassifying the mesentery as an organ will hold. Already, research is ensuing on how the mesentery interacts with the immune system and how that interaction could have an effect on autoimmune disease. I have many friends diagnosed with Crohn’s and Celiac’s disease, and with the discovery of Crohn’s mesenchymal cells in the mesentery, there is more resolved hope for better surgical options and treatment for them.

There is still much to be studied on the mesentery as an organ. The mesentery plays a role in the digestive, cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems; so the organ system in which to classify the mesentery is yet to be determined. Research is also needed to find and analyze the functional cell unit of the mesentery. The mesentery needs to be further researched with the same focus other human organs are under, and by so doing should improve diagnostic techniques, pathological treatments, and standardization of surgical procedures.

References

1         MacDonald, F. (2017). A brand new human organ has been classified. Science Alert. Retrieved from https://www.sciencealert.com/it-s-official-a-brand-new-human-organ-has-been-classified.

2         Scharping, N. (2017). The Human Body’s 79^th Organ. Discover Magazine. Retrieved from http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2017/01/03/the-mesentery-organ-human/#.Wa3OVMYVjIU

3         Daley, J. (2017). Meet Your Newest Organ. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/theres-new-organ-human-body-180961658/

4         Strickland, A. (2017). A new organ you didn’t know you had. CNN. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/04/health/new-organ-mesentery/index.html4

5         Gajanan, M. (2017). Scientists discover new organ in human body. Time Magazine. Retrieved from http://time.com/4621074/mesentery-organ-human-body/

6         Coffey, C., & O’Leary, P. (2016). The mesentery: structure, function, and role in disease. The Lancet Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Retrieved from http://www.thelancet.com/journals/langas/article/PIIS2468-1253(16)30026-7/abstract

7         Martini, F., Nath, J., & Bartholomew, E. (2015). Fundamentals of Anatomy and Physiology Tenth Edition. Glenview, IL: Pearson.

Japanese Researchers Report Promising Results in the Search for a Cure for Parkinson's Disease

Japanese researchers have reported the results of two years of researcher in Nature, the promising results show that implanted pluripotent stem cells survived and and did not cause dangerous effects in the body. The stem cells also created neural pathways and connected to other neurons as shown by increase movements of the monkey's treated with the stem cells. This is important because researchers thought that implanting pluripotent stem cells into the brain might cause tumors, and they can't be controlled by normal immune-suppressing drugs, it also shows promising results in rebuilding neural pathways after the death of neural cells.

Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative condition cause by the death of dopaminergic neurons. These neurons control the making of dopamine in certain areas of the brain. Symptoms of the disease are tremors and stiff muscles. Most of the medicine we have for Parkinson's only treat the symptoms of the disease and not the disease itself. This research provides promising results for a treatment, with human clinical trials expected to start at the end of the year. The full research and results are also currently being shared with other researchers in America and Europe working in pluripotent stem cells and on Parkinson's as well as other neurodegenerative diseases.

I thought this article was interesting because it involved promising results using pluripotent stem cells. These differ from the controversial embryonic stem cells in the fact that they are made from your bodies own cells that are coaxed into the embryonic-like stage. While this costs a lot more money to do, and takes months to do, it also removes most of the ethical concerns of use with them. It also allows personal treatments that are tailored to your body, because the cure is made using your own cells. This minimizes the risk of rejection from your body because the cells are your own.  Hopefully with more research and trials pluripotent stem cells will help in curing neurodegenerative diseases.

http://www.nature.com/news/reprogrammed-cells-relieve-parkinson-s-symptoms-in-trials-1.22531