Sauropods were big dinosaurs with little heads, like the sort known as brontosaurus. Their heads were so small and flimsy, in fact, that their skulls are rarely found.
About a dozen sauropod skulls are known from the Jurassic era, the great middle period of dinosaur life. But for the Cretaceous, the final 80 million years of the rule of dinosaurs, no sauropod skulls have been known from North America.
Until now.
Over the past few years, experts at Dinosaur National Monument on the Utah-Colorado border and at Brigham Young University have quietly worked on an astonishing four sauropod skulls or parts of skulls, found close to each other at the monument.
"We've really got a remarkable — it's almost mind-boggling — new discovery," said Dan Chure, Dinosaur's paleontologist. "If there's one thing you would not expect to find . . . it's sauropod skulls, because they're so rare."
Also, the fossils have fine preservation, he said in a telephone interview. "It's kind of hard to overstate how amazing this is."
All four are the same type, a new species and genera, says Chure. They lived around 100 million years ago, or possibly a little earlier.
The sauropod may have been 25 feet long with an 18-inch skull.
The animals, which do not yet have a formal scientific name, were not as gigantic as some sauropods. But like all creatures of their family, at the end of their long necks were heads that seem absurdly small.
Actually, a tiny head makes sense. If this animal had a noggin the size of a T. rex's, rather than rise to the top of trees to munch on the leaves, that heavy head would be dragging along the ground.
A sauropod skull is not a single bone but a series of delicate bones. "It seems that as soon as they die, the head falls off," Chure said. The bones fall apart and the pieces may wash downstream or become scattered by scavengers. They rot away because they are too thin to be easily fossilized.
"This has been very frustrating to people who work on sauropods," Chure said. Sauropod excavators might haul out 500-pound leg bones but nothing from the ruminating end.
About a dozen sauropod skulls have been recovered from Jurassic layers, "when sauropods are kind of at their zenith in terms of diversity and abundance," said Chure.
But in the next era, the 80 million years of the Cretaceous period, sauropod skulls are exceedingly rare, he said. One was found in Madagascar, two in Africa and one in South America, an animal which has not been described yet.
"And until recently, there were none from North America," Chure said.
Parts of sauropod headgear had been recovered from this continent, however. BYU researchers found some brain cases earlier at another site in Utah but not full skulls.
Brooks Britt, assistant professor of geology at BYU, noted, "Sauropod skulls are among the rarest of dinosaur finds because they have the thinnest bones, the most delicate skulls."
Recently, he and his lab teased the second skull and the snout of a third specimen from a large block of sandstone sent there from the monument. Also recovered was the brain case of a fourth animal.
The second skull was disarticulated, meaning the pieces had fallen apart. But the bones were there, and they are especially valuable because they can be examined from all sides.
In the 1970s, visiting paleontologists discovered the site where the sauropod skulls were later uncovered, which is on the Utah side of the monument in the general vicinity of the monument visitors center. In the 1980s, said Chure, "we relocated the site and collected some bones that were sticking out of the ground and weathering."
Dinosaur National Monument
The following decade, monument staff members worked at the quarry. About the year 2000, they dug up the first stunning find, the beautifully preserved and articulated skull.
By articulated, paleontologists mean it is together, not separated in pieces. "It's slightly distorted, but it's certainly an outstanding specimen," Chure said.
About a year and a half ago, crews dug out a giant slab of sandstone from the quarry, because they could see traces of fossilized bones in the rock. The slab was around 6 or 7 feet long, 4 feet wide and 3 feet thick. It weighed thousands of pounds.
"It was a whoppin' big block," Chure said.
It was lifted from the quarry by helicopter and taken to the visitors center. Early last year, a truck carried the slab to BYU, where Britt's team worked on it, painstakingly removing rock.
They extracted sauropod body bones and essentially a whole second skull, which was in pieces.
"Those guys did an amazing job," Chure said. "Some of the bones are paper thin, and they got all of the bones out of the rock."
They found the snout of a third sauropod of the same species, and at the quarry, scientists recovered the brain case of a fourth.
More specimens may await discovery in the new quarry. "The producing layer goes for probably at least as long an area as the quarry we have inside the building, and we've only excavated a small part of it," Chure said.
The articulated skull is so well preserved that eventually it may be used to make a mold, which could be cast. The cast could be placed on display.
How did four skulls end up together? Chure can't tell for certain.
The remains were in an ancient river or stream environment. Perhaps a herd of the animals drowned crossing a river. Or maybe they died in a drought, waiting beside a river that had gone dry, and a later flash flood washed the carcasses together.
He doesn't know what else might be discovered at the new site.
"We could have used up all our luck right away," he said. But he doesn't really think that and quickly adds that there's a lot more digging and chipping to do.
"Further work there is likely to turn up additional specimens," he said.
Chure hopes that he and Britt can get funding to support a concerted, longer effort. The new quarry, he said, might turn out to be as important as the famous one at the visitors center.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Ancient DNA Confirms Single Origin of Malagasy Primates
Living lemurs comprise more than 50 species, all of which are unique to the island of Madagascar, which is the world’s fourth largest island and east of Africa. Evolutionary analysis of the DNA obtained from the extinct giants reveals that they, like the living lemurs, are descended from a single primate ancestor that colonized Madagascar more than 60 million years ago, Yoder said.
The biologists extracted DNA from nine subfossil individuals in two of the more bizarre extinct species, Palaeopropithecus and Megaladapis. The first has been likened to tree sloths and the second compared to koala bears. Both ranged in body weights from 100 to 150 pounds, as compared to the largest living lemur, Indri indri, which weighs in at fewer than 15 to 17 pounds.
“The most important conclusion to be drawn from our study is that the phylogenetic placement of subfossil lemurs adds additional support to the hypothesis that non–human primates colonized Madagascar only once,” Yoder said. “However, the limited taxonomic success of our study leaves open the possibility that data from additional taxa will overturn this increasingly robust hypothesis.”
Yoder said the researchers’ results support the close relationship of sloth lemurs (Palaeopropithecus) to living indriids, but Megaladapis does not show a sister–group relationship with the living genus Lepilemur. “The classification of the latter in the family Megaladapidae is misleading,” she said.
Yoder said that damaging effects of moisture, ultraviolet irradiation, and tropical heat on DNA survival likely contributed to the inability to obtain DNA from some species. The only samples to yield DNA from tropical localities were the two individuals that were used as positive controls, Yoder said.
“The results of our study contribute to the mountain evidence that suggests that prospects for ancient DNA studies from the tropics are less promising than those from higher latitudes, but when the results are potentially of such compelling interest, it’s always worth a try,” she said.
May 27, 2005 - Yale biologists have managed to extract and analyze DNA from giant, extinct lemurs, according to a Yale study published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Radiocarbon dating of the bones and teeth from which the DNA was obtained reveal that each of the individuals analyzed died well over 1,000 years ago, according to the senior author, Anne Yoder, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
The biologists extracted DNA from nine subfossil individuals in two of the more bizarre extinct species, Palaeopropithecus and Megaladapis. The first has been likened to tree sloths and the second compared to koala bears. Both ranged in body weights from 100 to 150 pounds, as compared to the largest living lemur, Indri indri, which weighs in at fewer than 15 to 17 pounds.
“The most important conclusion to be drawn from our study is that the phylogenetic placement of subfossil lemurs adds additional support to the hypothesis that non–human primates colonized Madagascar only once,” Yoder said. “However, the limited taxonomic success of our study leaves open the possibility that data from additional taxa will overturn this increasingly robust hypothesis.”
Yoder said the researchers’ results support the close relationship of sloth lemurs (Palaeopropithecus) to living indriids, but Megaladapis does not show a sister–group relationship with the living genus Lepilemur. “The classification of the latter in the family Megaladapidae is misleading,” she said.
Yoder said that damaging effects of moisture, ultraviolet irradiation, and tropical heat on DNA survival likely contributed to the inability to obtain DNA from some species. The only samples to yield DNA from tropical localities were the two individuals that were used as positive controls, Yoder said.
“The results of our study contribute to the mountain evidence that suggests that prospects for ancient DNA studies from the tropics are less promising than those from higher latitudes, but when the results are potentially of such compelling interest, it’s always worth a try,” she said.
May 27, 2005 - Yale biologists have managed to extract and analyze DNA from giant, extinct lemurs, according to a Yale study published in a recent issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Radiocarbon dating of the bones and teeth from which the DNA was obtained reveal that each of the individuals analyzed died well over 1,000 years ago, according to the senior author, Anne Yoder, associate professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Plant extracts emerging as weapon against metabolic syndrome
Botanicals are thought to offer strong potential against metabolic syndrome as most derive their effectiveness from a mixture of active molecules acting at the same time. Scientists believe that they could find a plant containing multiple agents that reach the numerous different targets of metabolic syndrome.
According to the most recent definition, drawn up by experts from around the world, people with the metabolic syndrome have central obesity, plus two of four additional factors: raised triglycerides, reduced HDL cholesterol, raised blood pressure, or raised fasting plasma glucose level.
At Vitafoods in Geneva this month, Italian plant extract firm Indena introduced Madeglucyl, produced from the seeds of Eugenia jambolana (also known as Syzygium cumini), an edible plant used as a remedy in Madagascar folk medicine.
It has licensed the extract from a Madagascar institution that has completed a package of toxicological and clinical work on the product, which also has a history of consumption in Europe. Human clinical trials on Madeglucyl done in Madagascar, the US and Germany, have shown that it has a significant effect on blood glucose levels 15 days after starting the treatment.
Extracted from seeds of the plant, each batch of the supplement is said to have at least 20 per cent reduction on glucose levels in rats.
Its EFLA943 olive leaf has shown a strong effect on lowering blood pressure levels in a published animal study and a new clinical trial, not yet published, has confirmed the effects on humans. There is however also some animal data showing its effects on blood sugar levels and it could also help with cholesterol levels by increasing antioxidant levels in the blood.
Media attention is set to increase as the scale of the problem becomes clear. People with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to die from, and three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to people without the syndrome. People with metabolic syndrome also have a fivefold greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, if it is not already present.
This puts metabolic syndrome and diabetes way ahead of HIV/AIDS in morbidity and mortality terms yet the problem is not as well recognised, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
20/05/2005 - Plants hold the power to keep the increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome, a collection of chronic disease symptoms, in check, according to scientists, prompting the leading plant extract firms to start developing a whole new category of natural products, writes Dominique Patton.
According to the most recent definition, drawn up by experts from around the world, people with the metabolic syndrome have central obesity, plus two of four additional factors: raised triglycerides, reduced HDL cholesterol, raised blood pressure, or raised fasting plasma glucose level.
At Vitafoods in Geneva this month, Italian plant extract firm Indena introduced Madeglucyl, produced from the seeds of Eugenia jambolana (also known as Syzygium cumini), an edible plant used as a remedy in Madagascar folk medicine.
It has licensed the extract from a Madagascar institution that has completed a package of toxicological and clinical work on the product, which also has a history of consumption in Europe. Human clinical trials on Madeglucyl done in Madagascar, the US and Germany, have shown that it has a significant effect on blood glucose levels 15 days after starting the treatment.
Extracted from seeds of the plant, each batch of the supplement is said to have at least 20 per cent reduction on glucose levels in rats.
Its EFLA943 olive leaf has shown a strong effect on lowering blood pressure levels in a published animal study and a new clinical trial, not yet published, has confirmed the effects on humans. There is however also some animal data showing its effects on blood sugar levels and it could also help with cholesterol levels by increasing antioxidant levels in the blood.
Media attention is set to increase as the scale of the problem becomes clear. People with metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to die from, and three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke compared to people without the syndrome. People with metabolic syndrome also have a fivefold greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, if it is not already present.
This puts metabolic syndrome and diabetes way ahead of HIV/AIDS in morbidity and mortality terms yet the problem is not as well recognised, according to the International Diabetes Federation.
20/05/2005 - Plants hold the power to keep the increasing prevalence of metabolic syndrome, a collection of chronic disease symptoms, in check, according to scientists, prompting the leading plant extract firms to start developing a whole new category of natural products, writes Dominique Patton.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Crossing Africa With EGNOS
Flying over Africa using navigation information via satellite is what the European Space Agency (ESA) is undertaking next week between Senegal and Kenya. The aim is to demonstrate methods for safer aviation in the region.
ESA has already demonstrated that in Africa safe landings can be achieved thanks to the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). Several test campaigns have been conducted, most notably in February 2003 in Senegal.
The advantage of these procedures is to provide on each runway a vertical guidance approach without any specific infrastructure on the ground. It is thus an improvement in safety that is being offered by satellite technology. It will also allow the development of safer aviation at secondary airports that would be too costly to equip with classic landing support tools. GPS alone cannot provide this vertical guidance or ensure its integrity.
EGNOS is a programme from the European Space Agency, the European Commission and Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Developed by an industrial consortium lead by Alcatel Space, EGNOS comprises a network of around forty elements spread all over Europe for collecting, correcting and improving the American GPS data. The modified signals are then retransmitted via geostationary satellites to users’ receivers. EGNOS offers a positioning accuracy of less than two metres against 15 to 20 metres for GPS signals. It also guarantees the quality of the signals that GPS, a military system, does not wish to provide.
An ATR 42 plane from ASECNA (Agence pour la sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar) designed for just these types of test flights has been equipped to navigate by receiving the signals from EGNOS. The plane will use EGNOS to steer a course along aviation routes over the major part of the African continent. Moreover the pilot will land using the EGNOS test bed signals called the Interregional Satellite Based Augmentation System (ISA) - available over the Africa-Indian ocean region - which is the EGNOS extension for Africa. Departing from Dakar on May 16, the first stop will be N’djamena, Chad, before reaching Nairobi. Further flight trials will take place from Nairobi airport in the Kenyan capital.
Since 2002 an ongoing programme has ensured the installation of reference stations in several African countries. Currently, ISA comprises 10 stations: in Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa. This network provides corrections and improvements to the GPS signals all over Africa. These corrections are similar to those available in Europe. All these stations are linked to the EGNOS test bed located in Hönefoss, Norway.
The demonstrations across Africa are made in the framework of the Programme for Development and Demonstration of Applications for Galileo and EGNOS (ProDDAGE) in cooperation with the Galileo Joint undertaking (GJU), set up by ESA and the European Commission.
EGNOS is compatible with equivalent systems implemented throughout the world, in North America, in Japan and in India, which are called Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS).
The objective of these new test flights is to demonstrate the feasibility of the system for the entire African continent while Africa and Indian Ocean States have adopted a strategy for the use of satellite navigation in their region in the frame of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This pioneering crossing of Africa is in line with a vast operation intended to bring to Africa better safety in aviation.
EGNOS is currently going through its readiness review and will be declared progressively operational by early 2006 with a certification process for air navigation and safety-of-life services by 2007.
Source: European Space Agency
Date: 2005-05-13
ESA has already demonstrated that in Africa safe landings can be achieved thanks to the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS). Several test campaigns have been conducted, most notably in February 2003 in Senegal.
The advantage of these procedures is to provide on each runway a vertical guidance approach without any specific infrastructure on the ground. It is thus an improvement in safety that is being offered by satellite technology. It will also allow the development of safer aviation at secondary airports that would be too costly to equip with classic landing support tools. GPS alone cannot provide this vertical guidance or ensure its integrity.
EGNOS is a programme from the European Space Agency, the European Commission and Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation. Developed by an industrial consortium lead by Alcatel Space, EGNOS comprises a network of around forty elements spread all over Europe for collecting, correcting and improving the American GPS data. The modified signals are then retransmitted via geostationary satellites to users’ receivers. EGNOS offers a positioning accuracy of less than two metres against 15 to 20 metres for GPS signals. It also guarantees the quality of the signals that GPS, a military system, does not wish to provide.
An ATR 42 plane from ASECNA (Agence pour la sécurité de la navigation aérienne en Afrique et à Madagascar) designed for just these types of test flights has been equipped to navigate by receiving the signals from EGNOS. The plane will use EGNOS to steer a course along aviation routes over the major part of the African continent. Moreover the pilot will land using the EGNOS test bed signals called the Interregional Satellite Based Augmentation System (ISA) - available over the Africa-Indian ocean region - which is the EGNOS extension for Africa. Departing from Dakar on May 16, the first stop will be N’djamena, Chad, before reaching Nairobi. Further flight trials will take place from Nairobi airport in the Kenyan capital.
Since 2002 an ongoing programme has ensured the installation of reference stations in several African countries. Currently, ISA comprises 10 stations: in Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, and South Africa. This network provides corrections and improvements to the GPS signals all over Africa. These corrections are similar to those available in Europe. All these stations are linked to the EGNOS test bed located in Hönefoss, Norway.
The demonstrations across Africa are made in the framework of the Programme for Development and Demonstration of Applications for Galileo and EGNOS (ProDDAGE) in cooperation with the Galileo Joint undertaking (GJU), set up by ESA and the European Commission.
EGNOS is compatible with equivalent systems implemented throughout the world, in North America, in Japan and in India, which are called Satellite-Based Augmentation Systems (SBAS).
The objective of these new test flights is to demonstrate the feasibility of the system for the entire African continent while Africa and Indian Ocean States have adopted a strategy for the use of satellite navigation in their region in the frame of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). This pioneering crossing of Africa is in line with a vast operation intended to bring to Africa better safety in aviation.
EGNOS is currently going through its readiness review and will be declared progressively operational by early 2006 with a certification process for air navigation and safety-of-life services by 2007.
Source: European Space Agency
Date: 2005-05-13
Leprosy genome tells story of human migrations, French researchers report in Science
A French genetics study comparing strains of leprosy-causing bacteria has revealed some surprises about how the pathogen evolved and how it was spread across the continents by human migrations. The research, led by scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, appears in the 13 May issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
The findings indicate that the world's existing leprosy infections are all caused by a single bacterial clone that has spread yet barely mutated for centuries. They also show that the disease may have begun in East Africa, as opposed to India as previously thought, and then spread to the other continents in part through European colonialism and later the slave trade.
One of the oldest known human diseases, leprosy is still a significant problem in parts of the developing world, especially India. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 500,000 new cases were detected in 2003. (who.int/lep/stat2002/global02.htm)
"Leprosy is still very real and devastating to patients who aren't treated appropriately. The better we can understand this pathogen's genome and the subtle differences among its various strains worldwide, the better position we'll be in to ultimately eliminate the disease," said Caroline Ash, Senior Editor at Science.
The ability to trace an infection back to a certain region may help public health workers monitor the movement of the disease over time and determine the geographic source of new infections, said study author Stewart Cole of the Pasteur Institute.
Historically, it's been thought that leprosy originated in the Indian subcontinent and was then introduced to Europe by Greek soldiers returning from the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, according to Cole. More research will be necessary to confirm this, but the new findings indicate that the disease actually originated in East Africa or perhaps the Near East, then migrated eastward and westward.
Europeans and North Africans then spread Leprosy to West Africa, and the slave trade brought the disease from West Africa to the Caribbean and South America, the study suggests. Europeans also introduced leprosy to North America.
"Colonialism was extremely bad for parts of the world in terms of human health," said Cole.
The disease, caused by Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affects the skin and nervous system, particularly the limbs and digits. It's not especially contagious, as people once widely believed, but it can cause permanent disability and disfigurement and is still a source of social stigma. The disease is treatable with a combination of antibiotics.
The bacterium has long puzzled researchers because its genome is filled with an unusually high proportion of damaged, nonfunctional genes. This is probably why it grows exceedingly slowly, making it difficult for researchers to study because they can't grow it in culture. In fact, M. leprae only lives in humans and in armadillos (which might have acquired the bacterium by eating infected human cadavers), and it can also grow in the footpads of mice.
Cole and his international research team compared the genomes of seven strains of M. leprae taken from patients around the world and then grown in armadillos until the samples were large enough to analyze. They focused on genetic sequences known to be dynamic -- to move around, copy themselves or disappear -- and thus most likely to reflect evolutionary change, but found strikingly little variation.
Next, the researchers looked for mutations known as "single nucleotide polymorphisms" or "SNPs," which are substitutions of single nucleotides or "letters" at a specific spot in the genome. They found only three spots where useful SNPs occurred.
"Finding so few SNPs is pretty unusual. It's the least number of SNPs I'm aware of in any bacterium," Cole said.
At each of the three SNP locations, one of four different nucleotides can be substituted, making for a possible 64 different combinations in the genetic sequence. In a study of 175 different bacteria samples from 21 countries, the researchers found only four of these possible combinations.
Overall, the genetic similarity between the different samples suggests that the bacterium's genome is exceedingly stable.
"It seems that there was only a single source of the bacterium that was at the origin of this global pandemic," Cole said.
Each of the four SNP combinations was most common in a certain geographic region, allowing the researchers to trace how the pathogen had spread from its original source.
Additional contacts: French: Michaela Jarvis, AAAS, 1-925-945-8229 PST, michaelajarvis@sbcglobal.net
Corinne Jamma, Pasteur Institute, 33-1-40-61-33-41, cjamma@pasteur.fr
English: Kathy Wren, AAAS, 1-617-628-0373 EST, kwren@aaas.org
Cole's coauthors are Marc Monot, Nadine Honoré, Thierry Garnier, Romulo Araoz, Jean-Yves Coppée and Céline Lacroix of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France; Samba Sow at Centre National d'Appui à la lutte Contre la Maladie in Bamako, Mali; John S. Spencer and Patrick J. Brennan at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, USA; Richard W. Truman and Diana L. Williams at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Robert Gelber at Leonard Wood Memorial Center for Leprosy Research in Cebu, Philippines; Marcos Virmond at Instituto "Lauro de Souza Lima" in São Paulo, Brazil; Béatrice Flageul at Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, France; Sang-Nae Cho at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Republic of Korea; Baohong Ji at Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, France; Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi and Jacinto Convit at Instituto de Biomedicina in Caracas, Venezuela; Saroj Young and Paul E. Fine at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, UK; and Voahangy Rasolofo at Institute Pasteur de Madagascar in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The study was funded by the Pasteur Institute, the Association Française Raoul Follereau, Lepra, the Consortium National de Recherche en Génomique, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more.
Contact: Jessica Lawrence-Hurt
jlawrenc@aaas.org
1-202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org
14 May 2005
The findings indicate that the world's existing leprosy infections are all caused by a single bacterial clone that has spread yet barely mutated for centuries. They also show that the disease may have begun in East Africa, as opposed to India as previously thought, and then spread to the other continents in part through European colonialism and later the slave trade.
One of the oldest known human diseases, leprosy is still a significant problem in parts of the developing world, especially India. According to the World Health Organization, roughly 500,000 new cases were detected in 2003. (who.int/lep/stat2002/global02.htm)
"Leprosy is still very real and devastating to patients who aren't treated appropriately. The better we can understand this pathogen's genome and the subtle differences among its various strains worldwide, the better position we'll be in to ultimately eliminate the disease," said Caroline Ash, Senior Editor at Science.
The ability to trace an infection back to a certain region may help public health workers monitor the movement of the disease over time and determine the geographic source of new infections, said study author Stewart Cole of the Pasteur Institute.
Historically, it's been thought that leprosy originated in the Indian subcontinent and was then introduced to Europe by Greek soldiers returning from the Indian campaign of Alexander the Great, according to Cole. More research will be necessary to confirm this, but the new findings indicate that the disease actually originated in East Africa or perhaps the Near East, then migrated eastward and westward.
Europeans and North Africans then spread Leprosy to West Africa, and the slave trade brought the disease from West Africa to the Caribbean and South America, the study suggests. Europeans also introduced leprosy to North America.
"Colonialism was extremely bad for parts of the world in terms of human health," said Cole.
The disease, caused by Mycobacterium leprae, primarily affects the skin and nervous system, particularly the limbs and digits. It's not especially contagious, as people once widely believed, but it can cause permanent disability and disfigurement and is still a source of social stigma. The disease is treatable with a combination of antibiotics.
The bacterium has long puzzled researchers because its genome is filled with an unusually high proportion of damaged, nonfunctional genes. This is probably why it grows exceedingly slowly, making it difficult for researchers to study because they can't grow it in culture. In fact, M. leprae only lives in humans and in armadillos (which might have acquired the bacterium by eating infected human cadavers), and it can also grow in the footpads of mice.
Cole and his international research team compared the genomes of seven strains of M. leprae taken from patients around the world and then grown in armadillos until the samples were large enough to analyze. They focused on genetic sequences known to be dynamic -- to move around, copy themselves or disappear -- and thus most likely to reflect evolutionary change, but found strikingly little variation.
Next, the researchers looked for mutations known as "single nucleotide polymorphisms" or "SNPs," which are substitutions of single nucleotides or "letters" at a specific spot in the genome. They found only three spots where useful SNPs occurred.
"Finding so few SNPs is pretty unusual. It's the least number of SNPs I'm aware of in any bacterium," Cole said.
At each of the three SNP locations, one of four different nucleotides can be substituted, making for a possible 64 different combinations in the genetic sequence. In a study of 175 different bacteria samples from 21 countries, the researchers found only four of these possible combinations.
Overall, the genetic similarity between the different samples suggests that the bacterium's genome is exceedingly stable.
"It seems that there was only a single source of the bacterium that was at the origin of this global pandemic," Cole said.
Each of the four SNP combinations was most common in a certain geographic region, allowing the researchers to trace how the pathogen had spread from its original source.
Additional contacts: French: Michaela Jarvis, AAAS, 1-925-945-8229 PST, michaelajarvis@sbcglobal.net
Corinne Jamma, Pasteur Institute, 33-1-40-61-33-41, cjamma@pasteur.fr
English: Kathy Wren, AAAS, 1-617-628-0373 EST, kwren@aaas.org
Cole's coauthors are Marc Monot, Nadine Honoré, Thierry Garnier, Romulo Araoz, Jean-Yves Coppée and Céline Lacroix of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France; Samba Sow at Centre National d'Appui à la lutte Contre la Maladie in Bamako, Mali; John S. Spencer and Patrick J. Brennan at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO, USA; Richard W. Truman and Diana L. Williams at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, LA, USA; Robert Gelber at Leonard Wood Memorial Center for Leprosy Research in Cebu, Philippines; Marcos Virmond at Instituto "Lauro de Souza Lima" in São Paulo, Brazil; Béatrice Flageul at Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris, France; Sang-Nae Cho at Yonsei University College of Medicine in Seoul, Republic of Korea; Baohong Ji at Faculté de Médecine Pitié-Salpêtrière in Paris, France; Alberto Paniz-Mondolfi and Jacinto Convit at Instituto de Biomedicina in Caracas, Venezuela; Saroj Young and Paul E. Fine at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in London, UK; and Voahangy Rasolofo at Institute Pasteur de Madagascar in Antananarivo, Madagascar.
The study was funded by the Pasteur Institute, the Association Française Raoul Follereau, Lepra, the Consortium National de Recherche en Génomique, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal, Science. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, serving 10 million individuals. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of one million. The non-profit AAAS is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy; international programs; science education; and more.
Contact: Jessica Lawrence-Hurt
jlawrenc@aaas.org
1-202-326-7088
American Association for the Advancement of Science
http://www.aaas.org
14 May 2005
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Fetuses found to inherit mother's trauma
Science: NATURAL SELECTIONS KEEPING STRESS IN THE FAMILY
Stress can motivate us, but it can also get us down. And though it might just make us feel blue, it can also kill us. It depresses levels of sex hormones and people stressed by deadlines are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
In Japan, karoshi (death by overwork) is said to claim 10,000 lives each year. Meanwhile in Britain last November, the Trades Union Congress, the national trades union organization, released data showing that stress costs the economy £7 billion a year.
With all the understandably negative reports about the effects of stress, it's easy to overlook the fact that the stress response is beneficial. And, like everything else to do with our bodies, the way they work and the way we behave, the stress response evolved through natural selection.
The stress hormone cortisol causes a rise in blood pressure and blood glucose levels. This is useful when an organism faces possible danger or loss of resources. It prepares us for "fight or flight," or -- in the modern world -- it helps us, say, to get a column written in time or to get through a public speaking engagement.
Cortisol is secreted when there are special opportunities as well as potential dangers. But when there are extreme dangers, cortisol levels can actually fall, because so much of it is used up. One of the consequences is a depressed immune system.
Cortisol levels can also fall if stress is chronic, drawn out, relentless. This was the kind of stress experienced by Yuji Uendan, a 23-year-old temporary staff agency employee who worked 9 3/4 hour shifts at a Nikon Corp. plant in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, for 15 days in a row before committing suicide in March 1999. A Tokyo District Court ruling in March 2005 ordered Nikon and Atesuto (formerly Nekusuta), the Nagoya-based agency, to pay Uendan's mother 24.8 million yen compensation for her son's karoshi, in what is believed to be the country's first such ruling related to a temp service worker.
However, despite the recent increased awareness of the danger of stress, it is not just a symptom of the modern age.
If anything, stress was harsher in prehistory and had just as serious consequences as it does now. This was clearly seen in a study on wild primates in Madagascar, published earlier this year. High-stress animals were six times more likely to die than low-stress animals during a two-year study. The animals weren't captured (imagine how that would add to their stress), but their stress levels were measured by analysis of fecal glucocorticoid levels. Glucocorticoids are hormones similar to cortisol that help the body to cope with stress.
Biologist Ethan Pride, of Princeton University, N.J., who conducted the research, said that the technique will be useful for wildlife managers to identify at-risk animals and focus conservation efforts on them.
Few biologists would be keen to collect human feces and measure them for stress hormones, and thankfully there are easier ways. One method measures stress by analyzing cortisol in saliva. The results of such research are making scientists to re-evaluate the causes of stress.
It used to be thought that reduced cortisol levels could be explained by mostly environmental factors, such as the stress of living with a parent who is depressed or anxious. That was how researchers explained the low cortisol levels in the adult children of Holocaust survivors: The children had heard stories of how their parents suffered, and became traumatized themselves.
But after 9/11, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City saw a different pattern. The scientists studied 38 women who were pregnant and witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Center. Those women in the sample who developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in response to 9/11 had lower cortisol levels than the women who did not develop PTSD.
Such a result was what the scientists expected.
However, about one year after birth, the babies of mothers who had developed PTSD symptoms had significantly lower cortisol levels compared to those in babies of mothers who developed only minimal symptoms. .
"The findings suggest that mechanisms for transgenerational transmission of biologic effects of trauma may have to do with very early parent-child attachments," said Mount Sinai's Rachel Yehuda, "and possibly even in utero effects related to cortisol programming."
In other words, the reduced cortisol in babies seems to be a "transmitted" biological trait -- traumatized mothers may have passed on potential mental illness to their unborn children.
The Mount Sinai researchers, working with others at the University of Edinburgh, have found that this decrease is apparently passed on to children in the womb. The work is published in May's issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The findings strengthen the evidence for in utero or early-life risk factors for the later development of adult mental or physical disorders. These can cause a "ripple effect" of stress in the next generation.
But it is worth emphasizing that, to fully understand a physiological response, it is necessary to consider the evolutionary history of the response -- its function in evolutionary terms.
A book of Natural Selections columns translated into Japanese, "Nou to sekkusu no seibutsugaku (Evolution, Sex and the Brain)," is published by Shinchosha.
Rowan Hooper is a biologist at Trinity College, Dublin. He welcomes readers' questions and comments at rowan.hooper@tcd.ie
Stress can motivate us, but it can also get us down. And though it might just make us feel blue, it can also kill us. It depresses levels of sex hormones and people stressed by deadlines are more likely to suffer heart attacks.
In Japan, karoshi (death by overwork) is said to claim 10,000 lives each year. Meanwhile in Britain last November, the Trades Union Congress, the national trades union organization, released data showing that stress costs the economy £7 billion a year.
With all the understandably negative reports about the effects of stress, it's easy to overlook the fact that the stress response is beneficial. And, like everything else to do with our bodies, the way they work and the way we behave, the stress response evolved through natural selection.
The stress hormone cortisol causes a rise in blood pressure and blood glucose levels. This is useful when an organism faces possible danger or loss of resources. It prepares us for "fight or flight," or -- in the modern world -- it helps us, say, to get a column written in time or to get through a public speaking engagement.
Cortisol is secreted when there are special opportunities as well as potential dangers. But when there are extreme dangers, cortisol levels can actually fall, because so much of it is used up. One of the consequences is a depressed immune system.
Cortisol levels can also fall if stress is chronic, drawn out, relentless. This was the kind of stress experienced by Yuji Uendan, a 23-year-old temporary staff agency employee who worked 9 3/4 hour shifts at a Nikon Corp. plant in Kumagaya, Saitama Prefecture, for 15 days in a row before committing suicide in March 1999. A Tokyo District Court ruling in March 2005 ordered Nikon and Atesuto (formerly Nekusuta), the Nagoya-based agency, to pay Uendan's mother 24.8 million yen compensation for her son's karoshi, in what is believed to be the country's first such ruling related to a temp service worker.
However, despite the recent increased awareness of the danger of stress, it is not just a symptom of the modern age.
If anything, stress was harsher in prehistory and had just as serious consequences as it does now. This was clearly seen in a study on wild primates in Madagascar, published earlier this year. High-stress animals were six times more likely to die than low-stress animals during a two-year study. The animals weren't captured (imagine how that would add to their stress), but their stress levels were measured by analysis of fecal glucocorticoid levels. Glucocorticoids are hormones similar to cortisol that help the body to cope with stress.
Biologist Ethan Pride, of Princeton University, N.J., who conducted the research, said that the technique will be useful for wildlife managers to identify at-risk animals and focus conservation efforts on them.
Few biologists would be keen to collect human feces and measure them for stress hormones, and thankfully there are easier ways. One method measures stress by analyzing cortisol in saliva. The results of such research are making scientists to re-evaluate the causes of stress.
It used to be thought that reduced cortisol levels could be explained by mostly environmental factors, such as the stress of living with a parent who is depressed or anxious. That was how researchers explained the low cortisol levels in the adult children of Holocaust survivors: The children had heard stories of how their parents suffered, and became traumatized themselves.
But after 9/11, researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City saw a different pattern. The scientists studied 38 women who were pregnant and witnessed the attacks on the World Trade Center. Those women in the sample who developed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in response to 9/11 had lower cortisol levels than the women who did not develop PTSD.
Such a result was what the scientists expected.
However, about one year after birth, the babies of mothers who had developed PTSD symptoms had significantly lower cortisol levels compared to those in babies of mothers who developed only minimal symptoms. .
"The findings suggest that mechanisms for transgenerational transmission of biologic effects of trauma may have to do with very early parent-child attachments," said Mount Sinai's Rachel Yehuda, "and possibly even in utero effects related to cortisol programming."
In other words, the reduced cortisol in babies seems to be a "transmitted" biological trait -- traumatized mothers may have passed on potential mental illness to their unborn children.
The Mount Sinai researchers, working with others at the University of Edinburgh, have found that this decrease is apparently passed on to children in the womb. The work is published in May's issue of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
The findings strengthen the evidence for in utero or early-life risk factors for the later development of adult mental or physical disorders. These can cause a "ripple effect" of stress in the next generation.
But it is worth emphasizing that, to fully understand a physiological response, it is necessary to consider the evolutionary history of the response -- its function in evolutionary terms.
A book of Natural Selections columns translated into Japanese, "Nou to sekkusu no seibutsugaku (Evolution, Sex and the Brain)," is published by Shinchosha.
Rowan Hooper is a biologist at Trinity College, Dublin. He welcomes readers' questions and comments at rowan.hooper@tcd.ie
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Madagascar populated from Africa, Borneo - study
The Malagasy people of Madagascar carry the genes from ancestors in both nearby East Africa and also distant Borneo suggesting a big migration from Asia back to Africa 2,000 year ago, British researchers reported on Tuesday.
The genetic study supports the puzzling finding that the Malagasy language more closely resembles Indonesian dialects than east African tongues but does little to answer the question of how the settlers arrived.
Madagascar, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, lies 250 miles off the coast of Africa and is 4,000 miles from Indonesia.
Its long isolation has led to the evolution of unique animals, including lemurs, rare birds and plants.
A team of genetics experts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Leicester looked at both the Y chromosomes of Madagascar residents, inherited virtually unchanged from father to son, and the mitochondrial DNA, passed directly from mothers to their children.
Tiny mutations in these two forms of DNA provide a kind of genetic clock that can help scientists trace human migration and inheritance.
The results showed clear similarities to sequences found on the island of Borneo, now shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
"The origins of the language spoken in Madagascar, Malagasy, suggested Indonesian connections, because its closest relative is the Maanyan language, spoken in southern Borneo," said Matthew Hurles, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at Cambridge, who helped lead the study.
"Malagasy peoples are a roughly 50:50 mix of two ancestral groups: Indonesians and East Africans. It is important to realize that these lineages have intermingled over intervening centuries since settlement, so modern Malagasy have ancestry in both Indonesia and Africa."
The findings suggest a substantial migration from southeast Asia between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago, the researchers report in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Tue May 3, 2005 04:45 PM ET - WASHINGTON (Reuters)
The genetic study supports the puzzling finding that the Malagasy language more closely resembles Indonesian dialects than east African tongues but does little to answer the question of how the settlers arrived.
Madagascar, the largest island in the Indian Ocean, lies 250 miles off the coast of Africa and is 4,000 miles from Indonesia.
Its long isolation has led to the evolution of unique animals, including lemurs, rare birds and plants.
A team of genetics experts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Leicester looked at both the Y chromosomes of Madagascar residents, inherited virtually unchanged from father to son, and the mitochondrial DNA, passed directly from mothers to their children.
Tiny mutations in these two forms of DNA provide a kind of genetic clock that can help scientists trace human migration and inheritance.
The results showed clear similarities to sequences found on the island of Borneo, now shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
"The origins of the language spoken in Madagascar, Malagasy, suggested Indonesian connections, because its closest relative is the Maanyan language, spoken in southern Borneo," said Matthew Hurles, of the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute at Cambridge, who helped lead the study.
"Malagasy peoples are a roughly 50:50 mix of two ancestral groups: Indonesians and East Africans. It is important to realize that these lineages have intermingled over intervening centuries since settlement, so modern Malagasy have ancestry in both Indonesia and Africa."
The findings suggest a substantial migration from southeast Asia between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago, the researchers report in the American Journal of Human Genetics.
Tue May 3, 2005 04:45 PM ET - WASHINGTON (Reuters)
Monday, May 02, 2005
Madagascar Technology: Proven method for boosting rice yields
SYSTEM OF Rice Intensification (SRI) technology is an innovative and cost-saving approach to boost rice yields. Also called `Madagascar Technology,' this seed-and water-saving method of rice farming was introduced in Southern India by the scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) under the leadership of Dr. V. Balasubramanian.
It is popularised by conducting extensive trials in the research stations and at the farmers' holdings by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU).
The extension support for promoting this technology came from the farmers' programme of All India Radio and the Department of Agriculture. Several progressive farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have reaped rich dividends by adopting the SRI technology.
Using young seedlings
"This is a technology that focuses on using young seedlings of 15 days and planting one robust seedling per hill in square planting with a wider spacing of 20 cm by 20 cm in a perfectly puddled and levelled field.
It uses only 5 to 7.5 kg of seeds per hectare as against 50 kg of seeds per hectare used conventionally," say IRRI scientists.
It also involves judicious use of water. A thin film of water is retained on the fields, and the next irrigation follows when hairline cracks appear on the soil.
A sound nutrient management with liberal application of organic manure, bio-fertilizers and mineral fertilizers will prove to be highly rewarding. Weed management is a crucial aspect of SRI, and by employing cono-rotary weeder, the fields can be kept free of weed menace.
The technology requires some skills and farmers can easily acquire them with some practice. Special type of nurseries has to be prepared for healthy, robust seedlings. When farmers plant only one seedling per hill in the field, they should ensure that the seedlings are planted vertically in the soft, puddle soil.
Each seedling will develop in to a thick clump accounting for a profusion (ranging between 60 to 70) of productive tillers.
The wider spacing facilitates better aeration to encourage extensive root formation and easy weeding using mechanical gadgets.
The plants have more room and sunlight to grow vigorously. The SRI technology can be used for all improved varieties of rice varieties of short- and medium-duration.Several farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh who have successfully adopted this technology have recorded high yields of over 10 tonnes of paddy per hectare. A group of farmers from Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu visited a progressive farmer of Kalahasthi to learn the nuances of this technology.
Extensively propagated
SRI technology is extensively propagated by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of ANGRAU at Kalahasthi, and farmers are using specially fabricated rotary-markers for planting the seedlings in line adopting a wider spacing says Mr. S.S. Nagarajan, Senior Vice President (Agricultural Research and Development), Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), Chennai."Farmers should exercise some caution while adopting this technology on a large scale. Planting one15-day-old seedling needs some expertise and weed management using the mechanical weeder should be adopted with great care," says Dr. Ramachandran, a progressive farmer of Red Hills. The cost of cultivation using SRI will be about Rs. 17,500 per hectare. Some innovative farmers have recorded a net profit of Rs.62, 500 per hectare from a rice variety of 130 days duration, according to Mr. Nagarajan.The technology requires some skills and farmers can easily acquire them with practice.SUCCESSFULLY ADOPTED: Improved rice variety showing profusion of tillers. Inset: An improvised rotary marker for sowing the seedlings at wider spacing.
It is popularised by conducting extensive trials in the research stations and at the farmers' holdings by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU) and the Acharya N.G. Ranga Agricultural University (ANGRAU).
The extension support for promoting this technology came from the farmers' programme of All India Radio and the Department of Agriculture. Several progressive farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have reaped rich dividends by adopting the SRI technology.
Using young seedlings
"This is a technology that focuses on using young seedlings of 15 days and planting one robust seedling per hill in square planting with a wider spacing of 20 cm by 20 cm in a perfectly puddled and levelled field.
It uses only 5 to 7.5 kg of seeds per hectare as against 50 kg of seeds per hectare used conventionally," say IRRI scientists.
It also involves judicious use of water. A thin film of water is retained on the fields, and the next irrigation follows when hairline cracks appear on the soil.
A sound nutrient management with liberal application of organic manure, bio-fertilizers and mineral fertilizers will prove to be highly rewarding. Weed management is a crucial aspect of SRI, and by employing cono-rotary weeder, the fields can be kept free of weed menace.
The technology requires some skills and farmers can easily acquire them with some practice. Special type of nurseries has to be prepared for healthy, robust seedlings. When farmers plant only one seedling per hill in the field, they should ensure that the seedlings are planted vertically in the soft, puddle soil.
Each seedling will develop in to a thick clump accounting for a profusion (ranging between 60 to 70) of productive tillers.
The wider spacing facilitates better aeration to encourage extensive root formation and easy weeding using mechanical gadgets.
The plants have more room and sunlight to grow vigorously. The SRI technology can be used for all improved varieties of rice varieties of short- and medium-duration.Several farmers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh who have successfully adopted this technology have recorded high yields of over 10 tonnes of paddy per hectare. A group of farmers from Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu visited a progressive farmer of Kalahasthi to learn the nuances of this technology.
Extensively propagated
SRI technology is extensively propagated by the Krishi Vigyan Kendra of ANGRAU at Kalahasthi, and farmers are using specially fabricated rotary-markers for planting the seedlings in line adopting a wider spacing says Mr. S.S. Nagarajan, Senior Vice President (Agricultural Research and Development), Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE), Chennai."Farmers should exercise some caution while adopting this technology on a large scale. Planting one15-day-old seedling needs some expertise and weed management using the mechanical weeder should be adopted with great care," says Dr. Ramachandran, a progressive farmer of Red Hills. The cost of cultivation using SRI will be about Rs. 17,500 per hectare. Some innovative farmers have recorded a net profit of Rs.62, 500 per hectare from a rice variety of 130 days duration, according to Mr. Nagarajan.The technology requires some skills and farmers can easily acquire them with practice.SUCCESSFULLY ADOPTED: Improved rice variety showing profusion of tillers. Inset: An improvised rotary marker for sowing the seedlings at wider spacing.
Indena present, Madeglucyl, the glucose level supplement
Madeglucyl is produced from the seeds of Eugenia jambolana (also known as Syzygium cumini), an edible plant used as a remedy in Madagascar folk medicine, according to the company.
Indena said that the efficacy of Madeglucyl has been made clear during clinical tests carried out in Madagascar, the US and Germany, where the supplement apparently demonstrated “a good tolerability and a significant effect 15 days after starting the treatment”.
Meanwhile, toxicological and pharmacological data appeared to confirm that Madeglucyl is devoid of any side effects and can provide a support in maintaining normal sugar levels in several experimental conditions.
Paolo Morazzoni, Indena’s scientific director, said that Madeglucyl "can provide a safe and effective aid in correcting impaired carbohydrate metabolism".
However, he warned that the supplement can not work in isolation.
“The maintenance of healthy blood sugar levels through physical exercise and an appropriate dietary regimen is a pivotal step in preventing impaired glucose tolerance with all the possible later complications,” he said.
The seminar on Madeglucyl will be held at Vitafoods on 12 May at 11:40am.
Vitafoods is Europe’s largest nutraceutical trade show, which runs from 10-12 May 2005 in Geneva.
Indena, a privately owned Italian company, reported €140 million in consolidated turnover in 2004, mostly generated abroad.
The phyto-chemical research is carried out in Indena's Settala Research Center, near Milan.
28/04/2005 - Italian company Indena plans to present its dietary supplement Madeglucyl, designed to maintain normal glucose levels, at Vitafoods next month.
Indena said that the efficacy of Madeglucyl has been made clear during clinical tests carried out in Madagascar, the US and Germany, where the supplement apparently demonstrated “a good tolerability and a significant effect 15 days after starting the treatment”.
Meanwhile, toxicological and pharmacological data appeared to confirm that Madeglucyl is devoid of any side effects and can provide a support in maintaining normal sugar levels in several experimental conditions.
Paolo Morazzoni, Indena’s scientific director, said that Madeglucyl "can provide a safe and effective aid in correcting impaired carbohydrate metabolism".
However, he warned that the supplement can not work in isolation.
“The maintenance of healthy blood sugar levels through physical exercise and an appropriate dietary regimen is a pivotal step in preventing impaired glucose tolerance with all the possible later complications,” he said.
The seminar on Madeglucyl will be held at Vitafoods on 12 May at 11:40am.
Vitafoods is Europe’s largest nutraceutical trade show, which runs from 10-12 May 2005 in Geneva.
Indena, a privately owned Italian company, reported €140 million in consolidated turnover in 2004, mostly generated abroad.
The phyto-chemical research is carried out in Indena's Settala Research Center, near Milan.
28/04/2005 - Italian company Indena plans to present its dietary supplement Madeglucyl, designed to maintain normal glucose levels, at Vitafoods next month.
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