Does dirt not protect against allergies after all?

New study raises doubts about hygiene hypothesis

12-Oct-2023 - Does playing in dirt really make children healthier and protect against allergies? The new study conducted by a team of researchers at FAU and the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm has now raised doubts about this assumption. The researchers have published their findings in the research magazine ...

Diabetes and cardiovascular disease increase dementia risk

More than one cardiometabolic disease doubles the risk

21-Jun-2022 - People with at least two of the diseases type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke have double the risk of developing dementia. Prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease could therefore be a strategy for reducing dementia risk, a study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the ...

Gene behind unhealthy adipose tissue identified

27-May-2014 - Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have for the first time identified a gene driving the development of pernicious adipose tissue in humans. The findings imply that the gene may constitute a risk factor promoting the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. Adipose ...

New discovery solves problem of anti-inflammatory substance

05-Mar-2014 - There have been great expectations regarding the production of a drug to block the enzyme LTA4 hydrolase, which plays a key role in the body's inflammatory response. However, in clinical trials, such molecules have proven to be only moderately effective. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet ...

New method increases supply of embryonic stem cells

29-Jan-2014 - A new method allows for large-scale generation of human embryonic stem cells of high clinical quality. It also allows for production of such cells without destroying any human embryos. The discovery is a big step forward for stem cell research and for the high hopes for replacing damaged cells ...

Inverse association between alcohol consumption, multiple sclerosis

08-Jan-2014 - Drinking alcohol appears to have a dose-dependent inverse (opposite) association with the risk of developing multiple sclerosis (MS) and researchers suggest their findings give no support to advising patients with MS to completely refrain from alcohol, according to a study by Anna Karin Hedstrom, ...

Reading the pancreas through the eye

21-Nov-2013 - Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have found an innovative way to study glucose regulation in the body: by transferring the vital insulin-producing cells from the pancreas to the eye, the latter can serve as a kind of window through which health reports can be obtained from the ...

How to live long and prosper

01-Nov-2013 - To live long and with healthy aging is often associated to the absence of metabolic diseases. However the rise in metabolic diseases in Europe has seen a dramatic surge due to improved life expectancy and lifestyle changes. Studies in animal models to link genetic variations to age-related ...

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Machinery regulating vesicle traffic

11-Oct-2013 - The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells. Each cell is a factory ...

Brown fat responsible for from heart disease-related deaths in winter

04-Jul-2013 - More people die from heart-disease during the winter months, and according to a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism, the increase in mortality is possibly due to the accelerated growth of atherosclerotic plaque in the blood vessels caused by the activation of brown fat by the ...