HEALTH TRENDS

Talking cigarette packs try to get smokers to quit

Smokers have grown accustomed to graphic warnings on cigarette packs, detailing the havoc cigarettes can wreak on their lungs, teeth, libidos, basically anything related to their well-being. But in case they haven't got the message, health researchers have devised a new way to grab smokers' attention: cigarette packs that talk back to their owners.

Researchers at the University of Stirling in Scotland have designed packages that play a recorded message each time the lid opens. The message would warn smokers about fertility risks and offer a helpline number for further information on quitting.

The messages showed initial promise among a sample group of libido-concerned teenage smokers. Aside from the content of the message, some test subjects considered quitting just to make the packs shut up.

"Tobacco companies creatively exploit packaging to communicate with consumers through the pack graphics, pack structure (shape, style of opening) and other pack elements such as the tear-tape, cellophane, inner foil," the researchers wrote on the University of Stirling's website.

Mystery of the fat gene 'solved'

The mystery of a genetic flaw which greatly increases the risk of obesity in one in six persons has been solved by an international group of scientists. A version of an obesity gene, called FTO, had been linked to a bigger belly, but the reason why was uncertain.

Now a study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation showed it made fatty foods more tempting and altered levels of the hunger hormone, ghrelin.

Obesity experts said drugs targeting ghrelin might reduce weight gain.

There is a strong family link with obesity, and a person's genetic code is thought to play a major role in the risk of them becoming overweight.

People have two copies of the FTO gene - one from each parent - and each copy comes in a high and a low-risk form. Those with too-high risk copies of the FTO gene are thought to be 70 per cent more likely to become obese than those with low-risk genes. But no one knew why.

Dr Rachel Batterham, the head of the Centre for Obesity Research at University College London, said understanding how FTO affected the odds of becoming overweight would help patients.

She said exercise such as cycling was an excellent way to lower ghrelin levels and there was a significant amount of research from pharmaceutical companies working on the hormone.

"Also, protein meals do lower ghrelin more, so anything that suppresses ghrelin is more likely to be effective in FTO patients," she noted.

The study was funded by the Rosetrees Trust and the Medical Research Council.

Lack of sleep increases risk of colon cancer

A recent study from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine found that people who snooze for less than six hours each night are at a 50 per cent greater risk of developing colorectal adenomas than those who sleep for seven hours or more.

Colorectal adenomas - a common form of polyp - can develop into cancer tumours if left untreated.

Participants in the study were asked to complete a survey by phone before attending a colonoscopy. Even after adjusting for other risk factors, including family history, waist-to-hip ratio (a measure of obesity), and smoking, there was a clear link between sleep deprivation and adenomas.

Embryonic stem cells could help restore sight to blind

Scientists have taken a major step towards potentially reversing a common form of blindness.

Researchers at the University College London (UCL) successfully transplanted light-sensitive photoreceptor cells from a synthetic retina that was grown from embryonic stem cells into night-blind mice. Photoreceptor cells are light-sensitive nerve cells at the back of the eye. Many forms of blindness - including age-related macular degeneration, retinitis pigmentosa and diabetes-related blindness - are caused by the loss of these cells.

The transplanted cells appeared to develop normally into the mice's retina and formed nerve connections needed to communicate visual information to the brain, the researchers said.

In the future, the process could provide an unlimited supply of healthy photoreceptor cells for transplantation into human retinas.

"Over recent years, scientists have become pretty good at working with stem cells and coaxing them to develop into different types of adult cells and tissues," said Professor Robin Ali of UCL. "But until recently, the complex structure of the retina has proved difficult to reproduce in the lab. This is probably because the type of cell culture we were using was not able to recreate the developmental process that would happen in a normal embryo."

The researchers grew the cells using a 3D culture method developed in Japan. Throughout the process, the cells were compared to cells developed normally to ensure they were biologically equivalent. Scientists then transplanted about 200,000 of the cells and injected them into the retina of night-blind mice.

Three weeks after the procedure, the injected cells began to look like normal, mature photoreceptor cells. Six weeks after the procedure, the cells were still there, and researchers noticed nerve connections with the existing retinal circuitry.

"The new 3D technique more closely mimics normal development, which means we are able to pick out and purify the cells at precisely the right stage to ensure successful transplantation. The next step will be to refine this technique using human cells to enable us to start clinical trials," said Ali.

He added, "If we can transplant 20,000 cones in [a person with] macular degeneration, I think there's potential for tremendous clinical benefit because humans don't need very many functioning cones for a really useful function. The foveola, in the centre of the fovea [in the retina], which is responsible for really high visual acuity - things like reading - has only 20,000 cones. That gives you an idea just how few cells you might need."

Wolmer's Old Boys' Association donates ENT and Thoracic Equipment to KPH