News by Subject Medicine & Health

New insights on circumventing a key obstacle on the road to anti-scarring treatment have been published by Maksim Plikus, an associate professor in developmental and cell biology at the UCI School of Biological Sciences and colleagues in Nature Communications. The research team discovered that the natural scar-free skin repair process relies partially on assistance from circulating blood cells. The results point the way toward possible treatments for scar-free wound healing that target the body's own blood cells.

In a study of teenagers and adults suffering from acne who consulted their dermatologist, the acne relapse rate was 44 percent (39.9 percent of ≤20-year-olds and 53.3 percent of >20-year-olds). The study was published in Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Researchers have pinpointed how fibrosis develops in butterfly syndrome patients. The discovery points to a potential treatment for the debilitating complication.

Anti-inflammatory biologic drugs used to treat severe psoriasis have the potential to prevent heart disease in patients with the skin condition, according to research published today in Cardiovascular Research, a journal of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC). During one year of treatment, biologic therapy improved coronary artery plaque similar to the effect of a low-dose statin.

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and notorious for its resistance to conventional chemotherapy. Approximately 25 percent of melanoma is driven by oncogenic mutations in the NRAS gene, making it a very attractive therapeutic target. However, despite decades of research, no effective therapies targeting NRAS have been forthcoming.

A new type of sensor could lead to artificial skin that someday helps burn victims 'feel' and safeguards the rest of us. UConn researchers wanted to create a sensor that can mimic the sensing properties of skin. Such a sensor would need to be able to detect pressure, temperature, and vibration. But why limit it? Perhaps it could do other things too.

Findings from a new study conducted by researchers at Henry Ford Health System suggest a link between keloids and increased risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer, particularly among African Americans. Keloids are benign fibroproliferative tumors, which can result in excessive growths of scar-like tissue on the skin. Keloids have been reported to affect some 11 million people worldwide. Despite this prevalence, the exact cause of keloid formation is unknown.