Posted on 02/21/2010 7:05:41 PM PST by neverdem
Deleting a non-coding region leads to narrowing of arteries in mice.
Researchers have made headway in working out why a section of junk DNA — the 98% or so of the genome that does not code for proteins — raises the risk of at least one form of heart disease.
About one in five deaths in the United States results from excessive build-up of fatty plaques inside arteries supplying blood to the heart — known as coronary artery disease (CAD). In 2007, genome-wide association studies1,2 on thousands of participants linked a non-coding stretch of chromosome 9p21 with the disease, and showed that people who carry certain single nucleotide mutations in this stretch of DNA have an increased chance of developing CAD.
The latest work, published online today in Nature3, builds on these studies by knocking out this area of the equivalent chromosome in mice. "We were really interested in understanding how this purely non-coding interval leads to CAD, so we thought, 'Let's delete it and see what happens'," says geneticist Len Pennacchio of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California, who led the study.
"We did, and found that the expression of two genes nearly 100,000 base pairs away from the deletion dramatically decreased in mice," Pennacchio explains. In addition, many of the mice without the non-coding DNA died earlier than normal and some developed tumours.
On the basis of this genetic discovery, the team uncovered a potential mechanism for how the region of non-coding DNA might increase the risk of heart disease. The two genes that showed decreased expression, called Cdkn2a and Cdkn2b, are cell-cycle inhibitors that control cell proliferation in the heart and other tissues. In mice lacking the non-coding region, muscle cells taken from the aorta multiplied much faster than normal — potentially obstructing blood flow...
(Excerpt) Read more at nature.com ...
Can you just let me eat my bacon, lard and mayonnaise sandwich?
Today...well, what do you know! Turns out the non-coding bits are not "junk" after all. Perhaps important discoveries about what functions these non-coding segments perform would have come earlier had scientists not blindly accepted (or passively assumed) Darwinism.
ping
All animal fats are ok; its the omega6 veg fats that make the troubles, but they still don’t have anything to do with heart disease. Heart disease is a bacterial inflammation issue. If you consume enough good salt, your stomach makes enough acid to control the bacteria; if not you’re in deeeep do-do.
Sounds like the old idea on what is "coding" is on the way down the drain. The number of things that are controlled by 'junk' is getting to be an 8000 pound elephant.
Thanks for the ping!
Does anyone really know what it means (the DNA story - not the ping)?
huh, ....what’s a ‘good salt’?
I have read from other sources that heart disease is related to generalized inflammation, e.g. that gum disease greatly increases one's risk for coronary disease.
Do you mean something different by "bacterial inflammation", since you single out the acidity of the stomach?
Also, what does the salt do? That's the first I've heard of it...
Cheers!
Salt is a necessity to make stomach acid. Cold weather you need at least one teaspoon of salt, and warm weather from two to three, depending on your level of physical activity.
Proper digestion greatly reduces the bacterial load in the blood stream, thus resulting in less arterial plaque, which itself is usually a bacterial inflammation issue, and less myocardial inflammation. That covers about 99% of heart attacks. Gum disease will also be gone quickly with proper digestion, including the plaque buildup on your teeth.
An additional bonus is the reduction in bronchitis, and pnuemonia.
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