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Published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, University of Minnesota Medical School researchers led a study that demonstrated the safety of using microbiota transplant therapy (MTT) in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) — a type of blood cancer — and recipients of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT).
Current treatment for patients with AML and who receive HCT includes powerful chemotherapy, which can damage their immune system and intestinal lining. Because of this, patients typically require antibiotics to fight and prevent infections. These antibiotics also kill healthy gut microbes, which may worsen treatment outcomes. The goal of MTT is to restore beneficial microbes in the recipient’s gut.
“Microbiota transplants are classified as drugs by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. However, they truly are an entirely different and new class of drugs, and we need to develop and understand their pharmacology. This requires standardized formulations and figuring out the optimal dosing regimens,” said Alexander Khoruts, MD, director of the University of Minnesota Microbiota Therapeutics Program.
In a randomized, double-blind study, the research team compared the outcomes of MTT for two groups: patients with AML and HCT recipients. They used a novel, standardized preparation of donor microbiota called MTP-101C, which is formulated in capsules that are taken orally. After each course of antibiotics, patients received either MTT or a placebo. The study found the rate of infections was lower in HCT and AML patients that received active MTT relative to the patients that received the placebo. However, the difference did not reach statistical significance.
Overall, the study showed MTT was safe and partially improved the imbalance of gut bacteria in patients who had received HCT or had AML. However, it did not significantly reduce the rate of infections in these patients.
These results will serve as the basis for a larger follow-up study, which will use a more aggressive MTT protocol with the microbiota compound manufactured by the University of Minnesota Microbiota Therapeutics Program. The program has been the world leader in the development and manufacturing of microbiota-based therapeutics over the past decade. It is working to develop effective and practical restorative microbiota therapies for multiple clinical indications, some of which include infections with Clostridioides difficile, inflammatory bowel disease and different applications in cancer.
This study was funded largely through local philanthropy, including the Chainbreaker Cancer Fundraiser bike event held in 2017, as well as the nonprofit Achieving Cures Together. Additional support was provided by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences [KL2TR002492 and UL1TR002494] and the National Cancer Institute [P30CA07759].

As a psychiatric disorder with onset in adulthood, schizophrenia is thought to be triggered by some combination of environmental factors and genetics, although the exact cause is still not fully understood. In a study published in the journal Cell Genomics on July 6, researchers find a correlation between schizophrenia and somatic copy-number variants, a type of mutation that occurs early in development but after genetic material is inherited. This study is one of the first to rigorously describe the relationship between somatic — not inherited — genetic mutations and schizophrenia risk.
“We originally thought of genetics as the study of inheritance. But now we know that genetic mechanisms go way beyond that,” says senior author Chris Walsh, an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and chief of genetics and genomics at Boston Children’s Hospital. “We’re looking at mutations that are not inherited from the parents.”
The researchers analyzed genotype-marker data from over 20,000 blood samples of people with or without schizophrenia from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium. They ultimately identified two genes — NRXN1 and ABCB11 — that correlated with schizophrenia cases when disrupted in utero. NRXN1, a gene that helps transmit signals throughout the brain, has been associated with schizophrenia before. However, this is the first study to associate somatic, not inherited, NRXN1 mutations with schizophrenia.
Unlike inherited mutations, which are present in all the cells of the body, somatic mutations are only present in a fraction of cells based on when and where a mutation occurred. If a mutation occurs early in development, it is expected that the variant is present throughout the body in a mosaic pattern. On the basis of this principle, researchers can identify somatic mutations that occurred early in development and are present not only in the brain but also in a fraction of cells in the blood.
“If a mutation occurs after fertilization when there are only two cells, the mutation will be present in half of the cells of the body,” says Walsh. “If it occurs in one of the first four cells, it will be present in about a quarter of the cells of the body, and so on.”
The second gene the researchers identified, ABCB11, is most known to encode a liver protein. “That one came out of nowhere for us,” says Eduardo Maury, a student in Harvard-MIT’s MD-PhD program. “There have been some studies associating mutations in this gene with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but it hasn’t been strongly implicated in schizophrenia per se.”
When the team investigated further, they found that ABCB11 is also expressed in very specific subsets of neurons that carry dopamine from the brainstem to the cerebral cortex. Most schizophrenia drugs are thought to act on these cells to decrease an individual’s dopamine levels, so this might explain why the gene is associated with treatment resistance.
Next, the team is working towards identifying other acquired mutations that might be associated with schizophrenia. Given that the study analyzed blood samples, it will be important to look at more brain-specific mutations that might have been too subtle or recent in a patient’s life for this analysis to detect. In addition, somatic deletions or duplications might be an under-investigated risk factor associated with other disorders.
“With this study, we show that it is possible to find somatic variants in a psychiatric disorder that develops in adulthood,” says Maury. “This opens up questions about what other disorders might be regulated by these kinds of mutations.”

Published42 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Smitha MundasadHealth reporter There has been a rise in the number of young adults in England who report feelings of severe distress, according to a new survey.The study found one in five 18 to 24-year-olds said they experienced severe distress at the end of 2022, compared to around one in seven in 2021.The research suggested reports of severe distress rose across all age groups, except for those over 65.Experts have pointed to the pandemic, cost of living and healthcare crisis.Researchers used a point-based score during telephone interviews to assess severe distress for the survey. People had not necessarily sought clinical help or a diagnosis at this point.The research team, including academics from King’s College London and University College London (UCL), say the rise in reports needs to be urgently addressed.England mental health referrals at 4.3 million highHow has coronavirus affected mental health?Dr Leonie Brose, from King’s, said: “The last three years have seen an unprecedented series of events that can be seen to be contributing to a worsening in people’s mental health – a pandemic, a cost of living crisis, and a healthcare crisis. “Our study shows that England’s wellbeing is steadily getting worse. “What’s required now is a strategy that puts equality, wellbeing and sustainability at the heart of society’s response.”The monthly telephone survey was conducted between April 2020 and December 2022 and involved some 51,800 adults in total. Each month, a new group of adults were asked how often in the last 30 days they had experienced a number of negative feelings such as worthlessness or hopelessness, feeling nervous or feeling so depressed nothing could cheer them up. Participants were asked to rate their feelings on a five-point scale, with higher scores placing them in the severe category. Overall, the proportion of people reporting severe distress increased from 5.7% to 8.3%, with some groups affected more than others, including participants from low-income backgrounds. Meanwhile, the proportion of adults reporting any distress was about a third during this time – it dipped to 28% in May 2021 and rose back to 32% by the end of that year.Commenting on the study, Prof Sir Simon Wessely, at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, said: “The strength of this study is that it is large, population based, and can look at trends over time. “Overall it suggests that what one might call normal feelings of distress, unhappiness or anxiety that probably do not require or indeed receive professional help have not changed much in recent years. “But there has been a definite increase in more severe levels of distress, some of which may reach what we call “clinical” levels, in which some form of assessment, most likely in primary care, might be indicated.”Of particular concern is that this is seen most in young people, confirmed by other studies.”Dr Michael Bloomfield, at UCL, said it was “particularly concerning” that the high levels of distress were “most marked during young adulthood”, adding that this was a key period of development “and this may represent elevated risk of subsequent mental health problems”. He said: “A mentally healthy adult population is in everyone’s interests. Investing in improving mental health pays for itself many times over.”The report is published in Jama Network Open.More on this storyHuge leap in children in mental health crisisPublished4 February 2022Quarter of 17-19-year-olds may have mental disorderPublished29 November 2022No sign of pandemic mental-health crisis – studyPublished9 MarchRelated Internet LinksInformation for young people on mental health and wellbeing – Mind.websiteMental health – NHS.websiteThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

The man always loved to bask in the sun. Now, at 80, the rays were making his skin red and itchy. “Come in out of the sun,” the woman shouted to her 80-year-old husband. “You’re turning red!” The man reluctantly trudged toward the house. It was late afternoon — the end of a glorious summer day in Orange, Conn. But when he glanced down at his exposed arms, he could see that she was right. He was a bright pink, and soon he knew his arms and probably the back of his neck would be red and itchy. It was time to go inside. He suspected that it gave his wife kind of a kick for him to be suddenly as sensitive to the sun as she had always been. He loved the sun and until recently thought it loved him back, turning his olive skin a deep brown that seemed to him a signal of health. But that spring he started to get red wherever the sun hit him. It wasn’t exactly a sunburn, or at least not the kind of burn his wife used to get that made her skin turn red and peel and hurt for days. His sunburn was itchy, not painful, and lasted an hour or two, sometimes a little more. It certainly never lasted long enough for his dermatologist, Dr. Jeffrey M. Cohen, to see it. He told his doctor about the rash that spring when he went in for his annual skin exam. Cohen said he might be allergic to the sun and suggested an antihistamine and a strong sunscreen. He took the pills when he thought of it and slathered on the sunscreen some of the time, but he wasn’t sure it did much. Besides, who ever heard of being allergic to the sun? Clearly Not a SunburnHe made an appointment with his dermatologist just before Christmas. It was one of those warm, sunny days in December, before winter really sets in, so he decided to make sure his doctor had a chance to see the rash. He arrived early and parked in the lot. He took off his jacket and stood in the sunshine that poured weakly over the building. After about 10 minutes he could see that he was getting pink, so he headed into the office. “I’ve got something to show you,” he told Cohen with a smile when the doctor entered the brightly lit exam room. He unbuttoned his shirt to reveal his chest. It was now bright red. The only places on his torso that looked his normal color were those covered with a double layer of cloth — the placket strip beneath the shirt buttons, the points of his collar, the double folds of fabric over his shoulders. Palest of all was the area underneath his left breast pocket where his cellphone had been. Cohen was amazed. This was clearly not a sunburn. To Cohen, it looked like a classic presentation of what’s called a photodermatitis — an inflammatory skin reaction triggered by sunlight. Most of these unusual rashes fall into one of two classes. The first is a phototoxic reaction, often seen with certain antibiotics such as tetracycline. When someone is taking these drugs, the sun can cause an immediate and painful sunburnlike rash that, like a regular sunburn, can last for days, causing blistering and even scarring. Clearly this patient had an immediate reaction to the sun, but he insisted his rash didn’t hurt. It just itched like crazy. And it was gone within hours. His reaction was more like a photoallergic dermatitis, in which sunlight causes hives — raised red patches that are intensely itchy and last less than 24 hours. But that didn’t quite fit either; photoallergic reactions aren’t immediate. They usually take one or two days to erupt after exposure to light. Each reaction is triggered by medications. Cohen reviewed the patient’s extensive med list. Amlodipine, an antihypertensive drug, was known to cause this kind of photosensitivity, but the patient had started this medicine recently, months after he first mentioned the rash. Hydrochlorothiazide, another of his blood-pressure medicines, could sometimes do this. The patient had taken this drug for years and been fine, but at least in theory, this unusual type of reaction could start at any point. Cohen explained his thinking to the patient. He would need to get a biopsy to confirm a diagnosis. The pathology would help him distinguish the inflammation of hives from the more destructive phototoxic reaction, which destroys the skin cells. And it would help him rule out other possibilities such as systemic Lupus erythematosus, an autoimmune disease that is most common in middle-aged women but can occur in men and women at any age. A couple of days later, Cohen had his answer. It was hives — medically known as urticaria. This was a photoallergic reaction. And it was probably triggered by his hydrochlorothiazide. He should ask his primary-care doctor to stop the medication, Cohen told his patient, and after a few weeks he should stop getting the rash. Photo illustration by Ina JangThrough the WindowThe man returned to Cohen’s office three months later. The rash was unchanged. After a few minutes in the sun he would be itchy and pink, even in the dead of winter. Cohen went back to the patient’s med list. None of the others had been linked to this type of reaction. “Tell me about this rash again,” he said. The patient went through his story once more. Any time sun hit his skin, even if the sun was coming through the window, he would turn red. When he was driving, the warm touch of the sun on his arm would cause an aggravating itch. And by the time he reached his destination that skin would be bright red. Hearing this description, Cohen suddenly realized he had it right the first time. The patient had developed an allergy to sunshine — a condition known as solar urticaria. Cohen explained that this was not a sunburn. Sunburns are caused by light in shorter wavelengths known as ultraviolet B or UVB. That form of light cannot penetrate glass. The fact that he could get this reddening through his window indicated that his reaction was triggered by light with a longer wavelength, known as UVA. This is the form of light that causes skin to tan and to age, the form used in tanning salons. Solar urticaria, he explained, is a rare disorder and not well understood. When sunshine penetrates the skin, it interacts in different ways with different cells. The most familiar are those cells that, when exposed, produce a pigment known as melanin, which tans the skin and offers some protection from other effects of the sun. In those with solar urticaria, the body develops an immediate allergic reaction to one of the cellular components changed by sunlight. How or why this change occurs is still not known. The allergy can start in young adulthood and may last a lifetime. And it’s hard to treat. Sunscreen, Cohen told him, is a must — even when indoors. He would also need to take a higher dose of the antihistamine that he was prescribed — at least double the usual recommended dose. Patients are also advised to wear protective clothing. Solar urticaria can be dangerous. Extensive exposure to sunlight can trigger severe reactions and, rarely, a potentially lethal anaphylactic event.The patient received the diagnosis just over a year ago and has been using sunscreen with an SPF of 50 ever since. He doubled the dose of his antihistamine. And most of the time, the medication plus long pants and sleeves and a hat keep him safe. Most of the time. And when he forgets, he knows he can count on his wife to let him know that he’s starting to turn red again.Lisa Sanders, M.D., is a contributing writer for the magazine. Her latest book is “Diagnosis: Solving the Most Baffling Medical Mysteries.” If you have a solved case to share, write her at Lisa.Sandersmdnyt@gmail.com.

The nation uses an enormous number of animals for commercial purposes, and regulations do not adequately protect against outbreaks, experts concluded.The United States is home to an enormous array of animal industries — including industrial agriculture, fur farming and the exotic pet trade — that pose a significant risk of creating infectious disease outbreaks in humans, according to a new report by experts at Harvard Law School and New York University. Moreover, the nation “has no comprehensive strategy” to mitigate the dangers posed by these practices, many of which operate with little regulation and out of public view, the authors concluded.“The risk is staggering, because our use of animals is staggering,” said Ann Linder, the report’s lead author and a research fellow at Harvard’s animal law and policy program. “And we don’t even really understand where that risk is.”Zoonotic diseases, or those that spread from animals to humans, account for roughly 60 percent of all known infectious diseases and 75 percent of new and emerging ones, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Although the exact origins of the Covid-19 pandemic remain murky, the possibility that the coronavirus might have first jumped into humans at a live animal market in Wuhan, China, prompted calls to shut down these so-called wet markets, especially in Asia.“It was very unclear what people even meant by wet markets, except that they were something that exists only in other countries,” said Dale Jamieson, an author of the report and the director of the Center for Environmental and Animal Protection at N.Y.U.But the new report highlights the extent to which Americans engage in many of these same high-risk practices. There are at least 130 live bird markets in the northeastern United States alone, the report notes; roughly 25 million birds pass through them every year.There have already been multiple outbreaks of highly pathogenic bird flu at live bird markets in the United States this year, the report says, and evidence suggests that swine flu has previously spilled over into humans at live animal markets in Minneapolis.The new report “should change the narrative” that spillover is a “foreign” problem, said Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, an expert on zoonotic disease at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, who was not involved in the report. “The risk of disease transmission is not really confined to a particular geography or cultural practice,” he added. “It can happen wherever there is frequent wild or domestic animal and human interactions.”The report is part of a larger project that began in 2020, when the authors set out to assess the zoonotic disease risks posed by animal industries in 15 countries. The authors hope to publish the full global report later this year.The authors analyzed 36 animal markets in the United States, including dog breeding, hunting and trapping, livestock auctions, backyard chicken farming and petting zoos. To assess how much risk each industry posed, they conducted interviews with experts and reviewed scientific papers, publicly available data, government regulations and more. For each industry, they considered 10 factors, including the number of animals involved, the pathogens they are known to carry and the interactions they have with humans, as well as any relevant biosecurity practices and regulations.“We just discovered so much that was surprising to us,” Dr. Jamieson said, starting with the staggering number of animals used for commercial purposes in the United States. The country produces more than 10 billion land animals for food every year, including more pigs and poultry, which can harbor and transmit influenza, than nearly any other country, Ms. Linder said. It is also the world’s leading importer of both livestock and wild animals, the report says. (More than 220 million live wild animals are imported annually.)The regulatory landscape, however, is “inconsistent and full of holes,” Ms. Linder said. Inspections of wildlife imports are spotty, and even when they do occur, they focus on enforcing conservation regulations rather than on disease, she said. No federal agency claims jurisdiction over mink farms, which became Covid-19 hot spots, and before the pandemic some states did not know how many of these farms were located within their borders, the authors note.The findings highlight a need for more regulation and better public education, Dr. Kuchipudi said. Many Americans may not even realize that some of these industries and practices exist, he noted, but “the risk can then impact all of us.”The report is just a starting point, the authors said, and key information — including basic data on the size and location of some animal industries — remains unknown. (People working in some of these industries failed to respond to the authors’ queries, Ms. Linder said.) The next step, they said, is to fill in some of these data gaps and conduct more detailed assessments of the riskiest practices.“These threats are out there,” Ms. Linder said, “whether we turn on the lights and face them or just continue taking comfort in the dark.”

Regular physical activity may protect against cognitive decline as we get older, but this protective effect may be diminished for people who are not getting enough sleep, according to a new study by UCL researchers.
The study, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity, looked at cognitive function over 10 years in 8,958 people aged 50 and over in England. The research team investigated how different combinations of sleep and physical activity habits might affect people’s cognitive function over time.
They found that people who were more physically active but had short sleeps — less than six hours on average — had faster cognitive decline overall, meaning that after 10 years their cognitive function was equivalent to peers who did less physical activity.
Lead author Dr Mikaela Bloomberg (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “Our study suggests that getting sufficient sleep may be required for us to get the full cognitive benefits of physical activity. It shows how important it is to consider sleep and physical activity together when thinking about cognitive health.
“Previous studies examining how sleep and physical activity might combine to affect cognitive function have primarily been cross-sectional — only focusing on a snapshot in time — and we were surprised that regular physical activity may not always be sufficient to counter the long-term effects of lack of sleep on cognitive health.”
The study found, in line with previous research, that sleeping between six and eight hours per night and higher levels of physical activity were linked to better cognitive function.

Those who were more physically active also had better cognitive function regardless of how long they slept at the start of the study. This changed over the 10-year period, with more physically active short sleepers (less than six hours) experiencing more rapid cognitive decline.
This rapid decline was true for those in their 50s and 60s in this group, but for older participants (aged 70 and over) the cognitive benefits of exercise appeared to be maintained, despite short sleep.
Co-author Professor Andrew Steptoe (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “It is important to identify the factors that can protect cognitive function in middle and later life as they can serve to prolong our cognitively healthy years and, for some people, delay a dementia diagnosis.
“The World Health Organisation already identifies physical activity as a way to maintain cognitive function, but interventions should also consider sleep habits to maximise long-term benefits for cognitive health.”
For the study, the researchers used data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a nationally representative cohort study of the English population. Participants were asked how long they slept on an average weeknight and were split into three sleep groups: short (less than six hours), optimal (six to eight hours) and long (greater than eight hours).
They were also given a score based on the frequency and intensity of self-reported physical activity and divided into two groups: more physically active (the top third of scorers) and less physically active (the other two thirds). Cognitive function was assessed on the basis of an episodic memory test (asking participants to recall a 10-word list, both immediately and after a delay) and a verbal fluency test (asking participants to name as many animals as they can in a minute).
The researchers adjusted for a number of confounding factors, such as participants having done the same cognitive test before and therefore being likely to perform better. They also excluded people with self-reported dementia diagnoses and those whose test scores indicated some cognitive impairment, so that behaviour changes linked to preclinical Alzheimer’s disease (such as sleep disturbance) did not inadvertently affect the results.
In terms of study limitations, the researchers relied on participants self-reporting their sleep duration and physical activity. The next steps, the researchers said, may be to repeat the results in more diverse study populations, examine more cognitive domains and more domains of sleep quality, and use objective measures such as a wearable physical activity tracker.
The research was funded by the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council.

The time of year when eggs are collected from women’s ovaries during fertility treatment makes a difference to live birth rates, according to new research published today (Thursday) in Human Reproduction, one of the world’s leading reproductive medicine journals.
Researchers in Australia have found that transferring frozen then thawed embryos to women’s wombs from eggs collected in the summer resulted in a 30% higher likelihood of babies born alive, than if the eggs had been retrieved in the autumn.
Dr Sebastian Leathersich, an obstetrician, gynaecologist and Fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility at Fertility Specialists of Western Australia, City Fertility Centre, and the King Edward Memorial Hospital in Perth, Australia, who led the study, said: “Over the duration of our study, the average live birth rate following frozen embryo transfer in Australia was 27 births per 100 people. In our study, the overall live birth rate following frozen embryo transfer was 28 births per 100 people. If eggs were collected in autumn, it was 26 births per 100 people, but if they were collected in summer there were 31 births per 100 people. This improvement in birth rates was seen regardless of when the embryos were finally transferred to the women’s wombs. The live birth rates when eggs were collected in spring or winter lay between these two figures, and the differences were not statistically significant.”
The researchers also found a 28% increase in the chances of a live birth among women who had eggs collected during days that had the most sunshine compared to days with the least sunshine.
Until now, there have been conflicting findings on the effects of the seasons on pregnancies and live birth rates following egg collection and embryo freezing. Dr Leathersich explained: “It’s long been known that there is seasonal variation in natural birth rates around the world, but many factors could contribute to this including environmental, behavioural and sociological factors. Most studies looking at IVF success rates have looked at fresh embryo transfers, where the embryo is put back within a week of the egg being collected. This makes it impossible to separate the potential impacts of environmental factors, such as season and hours of sunshine, on egg development and on embryo implantation and early pregnancy development.
“These days, many embryos are ‘frozen’ and then transferred at a later date. We realised this gave us an opportunity to explore the impact of environment on egg development and on early pregnancy separately by analysing the conditions at the time of egg collection independently from the conditions at the time of embryo transfer.”
Dr Leathersich and his colleagues analysed outcomes from all frozen embryo transfers carried out at a single clinic in Perth over a period of eight years, from January 2013 to December 2021. During this time there were 3659 frozen embryo transfers with embryos generated from 2155 IVF cycles in 1835 patients. Information on outcomes was missing for two frozen embryo transfers and so these were excluded, leaving 3657 for analysis.

The researchers looked at birth outcomes according to season, temperatures, and the actual number of hours of bright sunshine (as opposed to calculating hours from sunrise to sunset). They obtained the data on weather from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. They created three groups for duration of sunshine on days when eggs were collected: low sunshine days (0 to 7.6 hours of sunshine), medium sunshine days (7.7 to 10.6 hours) and high sunshine days (10.7 to 13.3 hours).
“When we looked specifically at the duration of sunshine around the time the eggs were collected, we saw a similar increase to that seen for egg collection during the summer,” said Dr Leathersich. “The live birth rate following a frozen embryo transfer from an egg that was collected on a day with fewer hours of sunshine was 25.8%; this increased to 30.4% when the embryo came from an egg that was collected on days with the most hours of sunshine. When we took into account the season and conditions on the day of the embryo transfer, this improvement was still seen.”
The temperature on the day of egg collection did not affect the chances of a live birth. However, the chances of a live birth rate decreased by 18% when the embryos were transferred on the hottest days (average temperature of 14.5-27.80 C) compared to the coolest days (0.1-9.80 C), and there was a small increase in miscarriage rates, from 5.5% to 7.6%.
Dr Leathersich said: “Our study suggests that the best conditions for live births appear to be associated with summer and increased sunshine hours on the day of egg retrieval.
“There are many factors that influence fertility treatment success, age being among the most important. However, this study adds further weight to the importance of environmental factors and their influence on egg quality and embryonic development. We effectively separated the conditions at the time of egg collection from the conditions at the time of transfer, demonstrating that environmental factors when the eggs are developing are as, if not more, important than environmental factors during implantation and early pregnancy.

“Optimising factors such as avoiding smoking, alcohol and other toxins and maintaining healthy activity levels and weight should be paramount. However, clinicians and patients could also consider external factors such as environmental conditions.”
Factors that may play a role in the increased live birth rates after egg collection in the summer and during more sunshine hours include melatonin. Levels of this hormone are usually higher in winter and spring, and eggs take three to six months to develop before they are released from the ovaries. Differences in lifestyles between winter and summer months may also play a role. The finding that miscarriage rates were highest when embryo transfer took place on the hottest days are consistent with epidemiological studies that show higher rates of miscarriage in the summer months.
“This suggests that the negative effects of high temperature are more likely related to early pregnancy rather than egg development,” said Dr Leathersich.
Limitations of the study include the fact that it is a retrospective rather than prospective study: looking back at what had already happened. For this reason, it cannot show that conditions at the time of egg collection cause the difference in live birth rates, only that they are associated with them.
Dr Leathersich said: “Ideally, these findings should be replicated in other sites with different conditions and different treatment protocols to confirm the findings. It would also be interesting to look at the impact of season and environmental factors on sperm parameters, as this could have contributed to our observations. We are now planning to analyse this same group of patients using air quality data, as there may be seasonal changes in exposure to harmful pollutants which could negatively affect reproductive outcomes.
“Finally, given the huge increase in so-called “social egg freezing” for fertility preservation and the fact that this group generally have flexibility about when they choose to undergo treatment, it would be very interesting to see if these observations hold true with frozen eggs that are thawed and fertilised years later. Any improved outcomes in this group could have big impacts for women making decisions about their future fertility, but the long-term follow up required means it is likely to be some time before we can draw any conclusions for this population.”

In a world-first, 3D holographic images of an embryo have been developed as part of a collaborative research project between the University of Adelaide and University of St Andrews. The images are created using miniscule amounts of light in a fraction of a second.
The team, led by Dr Kylie Dunning, Hospital Research Foundation fellow from the University of Adelaide’s Robinson Research Institute, and Professor Kishan Dholakia from the University of Adelaide and the University of St Andrews, developed an approach to create 3D holographic images of the pre-clinical model of an embryo at various stages of development.
“For couples wishing to conceive, the quality, or developmental potential, of an embryo is critical as it dictates the success of their pregnancy and ultimately, the birth of their child,” said Dr Dunning.
“In vitro fertilisation (IVF) clinics routinely assess embryo quality by visual inspection to check if an embryo is developing in a time-appropriate manner or by an invasive biopsy to determine DNA content of the biopsied sample.
“However, these approaches have failed to improve the success rate of IVF which has remained stagnant for more than a decade.”
A non-invasive approach without biopsy to help pick the most appropriate embryo is a highly beneficial tool for the 21st century embryologist: light can fulfill this need.

3D holographic images are a non-invasive approach which provides insights into the embryo by identifying detailed features. This may augment conventional visual assessment for embryo quality in an IVF clinic, allowing an embryologist to make an informed decision on the selection of best quality embryos.
“Optical technologies hold immense promise to unravel the metabolism and health of the embryo. This gentle, non-invasive approach could lead to improved IVF success,” said Dr Dunning.
Data from 2020 show that the success rates of IVF range from a live birth rate of 38.9 per cent per embryo transfer for patients under 34 years, to a live birth rate of 5.6 per cent per embryo transfer for patients over 43 years. In 2018 it was estimated that eight million babies had been born through IVF since the world’s first in 1978.
“This technology uses minuscule amounts of light — less than that from your smartphone — to allow rapid visualisation of the embryo in a fraction of a second,” said Professor Dholakia.
“It’s a prime example of interdisciplinary success for our new Centre of Light for Life at the University of Adelaide, and of collaborative international work with my group at the University of St Andrews, Scotland.”
The team aims to have the technology, which is being developed through research using a preclinical model, available in five years.
This cutting-edge development would not have been possible without the support of funding from the UK and EU, and the Australian Research Council (ARC), National Health and Medical Research Council and the Hospital Research Foundation in Australia.
Primary authors on the study are George Dwapanyin, postdoctoral researcher at the University of St Andrews and Darren Chow, PhD candidate at the Robinson Research Institute, School of Biomedicine, University of Adelaide.

Older people who have fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides may have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias compared to people who have steady levels, according to new research published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. While the study found a link, it does not prove that fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides cause dementia.
“Prevention strategies for Alzheimer’s and related dementias are urgently needed,” said study author Suzette J. Bielinski, PhD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “Routine screenings for cholesterol and triglyceride levels are commonly done as part of standard medical care. Fluctuations in these results over time could potentially help us identify who is at greater risk for dementia, help us understand mechanisms for the development of dementia and ultimately determine whether leveling out these fluctuations could play a role in reducing dementia risk.”
Researchers used health care data to identify 11,571 people age 60 or older who did not have a prior diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. Researchers looked at participants’ measurements of total cholesterol, triglycerides, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL) and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) on at least three different days in the five years before the start of the study.
Then researchers divided participants into five equal groups based on how much the measurements fluctuated. The lowest group had the least variation over time and the highest group had the most variation.
Participants were followed for an average of 13 years. During that time, 2,473 people developed Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia.
After adjusting for variables that could affect risk of dementia including sex, race, education and lipid-lowering treatments, researchers found for total cholesterol, participants in the highest group had a 19% increased risk of dementia compared to those in the lowest group. Of the 2,311 people in the highest group, 515 developed dementia compared to 483 of the 2,311 people in the lowest group. For triglycerides, those in highest group had a 23% increased risk.
Researchers did not find a link between variations in LDL and HDL and an increased risk of dementia.
“It remains unclear why and how fluctuating levels of cholesterol and triglycerides are related to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Bielinski. “Further studies looking at the changes over time for this relationship are needed in order to confirm our results and potentially consider preventative strategies.”
A limitation of the study was researchers looked at Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias as a whole and did not differentiate between the types of dementia.
The study was supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Taking good care of your teeth may be linked to better brain health, according to a study published in the July 5, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study found that gum disease and tooth loss were linked to brain shrinkage in the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory and Alzheimer’s disease. The study does not prove that gum disease or tooth loss causes Alzheimer’s disease; it only shows an association.
“Tooth loss and gum disease, which is inflammation of the tissue around the teeth that can cause shrinkage of the gums and loosening of the teeth, are very common, so evaluating a potential link with dementia is incredibly important,” said study author Satoshi Yamaguchi, PhD, DDS, of Tohoku University in Sendai, Japan. “Our study found that these conditions may play a role in the health of the brain area that controls thinking and memory, giving people another reason to take better care of their teeth.”
The study involved 172 people with an average age of 67 who did not have memory problems at the beginning of the study.
Participants had dental exams and took memory tests at the beginning of the study. They also had brain scans to measure volume of the hippocampus at the beginning of the study and again four years later.
For each participant, researchers counted the number of teeth and checked for gum disease by looking at periodontal probing depth, a measurement of the gum tissue. Healthy readings are from one to three millimeters.
Mild gum disease involves probing depths of three or four millimeters in several areas, while severe gum disease involves probing depths of five or six millimeters in several areas as well as more bone loss and can cause teeth to become loose and eventually fall out.

Researchers found that the number of teeth and amount of gum disease was linked to changes in the left hippocampus of the brain.
For people with mild gum disease having fewer teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the left hippocampus.
However, for people with severe gum disease having more teeth was associated with a faster rate of brain shrinkage in the same area of the brain.
After adjusting for age, researchers found that for people with mild gum disease, the increase in the rate of brain shrinkage due to one less tooth was equivalent to nearly one year of brain aging. Conversely, for people with severe gum disease the increase in brain shrinkage due to one more tooth was equivalent to 1.3 years of brain aging.
“These results highlight the importance of preserving the health of the teeth and not just retaining the teeth,” Yamaguchi said. “The findings suggest that retaining teeth with severe gum disease is associated with brain atrophy. Controlling the progression of gum disease through regular dental visits is crucial, and teeth with severe gum disease may need to be extracted and replaced with appropriate prosthetic devices.”
Yamaguchi said future studies are needed with larger groups of people. Another limitation of the study is that it was conducted in one region of Japan, so the results may not be generalizable to other locations.
The study was supported by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology; Keio University; Japan Arteriosclerosis Prevention Fund; Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare; Teikyo University; Pfizer Japan; Bayer Yakuhin; Chugai Pharmaceutical; Daiichi Sankyo; Astellas Pharma; Takeda Pharmaceutical; Health Care Science Institute; Health Science Center; and Takeda Science Foundation.