Stem cells rebuild cartilage
Researchers say they have turned adult muscle stem cells into cartilage and used them in animals to heal the kind of damage caused by arthritis.
That is potentially good news for the many people who now face joint-replacement surgery because there is no available technique to repair cartilage damage from osteoarthritis, wear and tear that afflicts many older people.
The transformed cells have successfully replaced damaged cartilage in rats for as long as 24 weeks, much longer than has been reported in studies using other methods, according to a report in the February issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism.
Experiments to extend the benefit to 48 weeks are in the planning stage, with an eye to human trials, said study leader Johnny Huard, director of the Growth and Development Laboratory at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
Drops, not pills, for infected ears
Quinolone antibiotic eardrops are better than oral or injected antibiotics at treating middle-ear infections, according to a new review of research literature.
The authors noted that chronically discharging ears associated with underlying persistent eardrum perforations, a condition called chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM), are a common cause of preventable hearing impairment.
CSOM usually occurs during the first five years of life but can continue into adulthood. Untreated CSOM can lead to damage of the small sound-transmitting bones in the middle ear, resulting in permanent hearing loss. When this occurs in children, they can suffer impaired language and speech development.
This review of available research literature concluded that a short course of quinolone antibiotic eardrops was more effective at drying the ear than oral or injected antibiotics. The review authors said there was not enough available information for them to assess the effectiveness of topical non-quinolone antibiotics that do not contain steroids, or of antiseptic treatments, compared with oral or injected antibiotics.
The review appears in the latest update of The Cochrane Library.
Smokers quit well on a whim
Putting a lot of thought and planning into quitting smoking may not be the best route to success, a new study finds. In fact, British researchers found that those smokers who spontaneously quit were much more likely to not resume smoking than those who planned a “quit strategy” long in advance.
“A very large proportion, probably about half, of attempts to stop smoking are made without any pre-planning at all,” said lead researcher Robert West, a professor of health psychology at University College London. “People just suddenly decide to quit and do it.”
Not only do about 50 percent of quitters decide to quit suddenly, but they are more successful at quitting, West added.
“Perhaps more surprisingly, we found that these spur-of-the-moment quit attempts more likely to be successful,” he said. “This goes very much against received wisdom which says that people usually plan their quit attempts and that planning is important for success.”
The report appears in the Jan. 26 online edition of the British Medical Journal.
