Surgeons implant first synthetic organ
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, July 7 (UPI) -- Surgeons in Sweden report they have performed the world's first transplant of a synthetic organ, an artificial windpipe coated in the patient's stem cells.
Surgeons at the Karolinska University Hospital said the 36-year-old cancer patient is doing well after the procedure, the BBC reported Thursday.
The pioneering surgery, which presents no risk of the organ being rejected, involves modeling a structure or scaffold that is an exact replica of the patient's own windpipe, removing the need for a donor organ.
Scientists at University College London used 3D scans of the patient's windpipe to craft a copy of the patient's trachea out of porous glass, which was then flown to Sweden and soaked in a solution of stem cells taken from the patient's bone marrow.
In a 12-hour operation, the patient's cancerous windpipe was removed and replaced with the custom-made replica.
The stem cells will be able to divide and grow, turning the inert windpipe scaffold into an organ indistinguishable from a normal healthy one, doctors said.
DNA points to ancestor of all polar bears
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., July 7 (UPI) -- The female ancestor of all polar bears was a brown bear that lived in the region of present-day Britain and Ireland 20,000 to 50,000 years ago, researchers say.
Climate changes affecting North Atlantic ice sheets probably gave rise to periodic overlaps in bear habitats that led to hybridization, or interbreeding, causing maternal DNA from brown bears to be introduced into polar bears, scientists say.
The research, led by Beth Shapiro of Penn State and Daniel Bradley of Trinity College Dublin, is expected to help guide future conservation efforts for polar bears, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, a Penn State release said Thursday.
Polar bears are expert swimmers that have adapted to a highly specialized, arctic lifestyle, while brown bears -- including Grizzlies and Kodiaks -- are climbers, preferring mountain forests, wilderness regions, and river valleys of Europe, Asia, and North America, the researchers said.
"Despite these differences, we know that the two species have interbred opportunistically and probably on many occasions during the last 100,000 years," Shapiro said. "Most importantly, previous research has indicated that the brown bear contributed genetic material to the polar bear's mitochondrial lineage -- the maternal part of the genome, or the DNA that is passed exclusively from mothers to offspring."
The specific population of brown bears that shared its maternal DNA with polar bears has been extinct for roughly 9,000 years.
Report: U.S. obesity in ongoing rise
WASHINGTON, July 7 (UPI) -- Adult obesity rates increased in 16 U.S. states in the past year and did not decline in any state, a report indicates.
The report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Trust For America's Health found 12 states have obesity rates in excess of 30 percent, whereas four years ago only one state had more than 30 percent.
Twenty years ago no state had an obesity rate more than 15 percent while today 38 states have obesity rates exceeding 25 percent, and only one has a rate of less than 20 percent, a TFAH release said Thursday.
Since 1995, the report said, obesity rates have doubled in seven states and increased by at least 90 percent in 10 others.
Obesity rates have grown fastest in Oklahoma, Alabama and Tennessee, and slowest in the District of Columbia, Colorado and Connecticut, the report said.
New material could control temperatures
NINGBO, China, July 7 (UPI) -- Chinese researchers say a material that can retain and release heat for specific temperature requirements could mean lower costs to heat and cool buildings.
Scientists at The University of Nottingham Ningbo China believe the new material, which could be used in existing structures as well as new builds, could offer considerable energy savings.
The non-deformed energy storage phase change material has the advantage of a larger energy storage capacity with faster thermal response than existing materials and could be cheaply manufactured, a university release said Thursday.
If, for example, the desired temperature in a room is 71 degrees Fahrenheit, the material can be made to absorb any excess heat above that temperature, researchers said.
The heat-regulating material could be applied anywhere, from walls and roofs to wallpaper, they said.
"The construction industry produces more carbon emissions than any other industry in the world -- even more than aviation," UNNC researcher Jo Darkwa said. "In China, the building sector is one of the highest energy consuming sectors, accounting for about 30 per cent of total energy usage and also a significant proportion of pollutant emissions.
"This material, if widely used, could make a major impact in the world's efforts to reduce carbon emission," he said.
