Antioxidants are widely considered an important defense against heart disease, but researchers have found excessive levels of one antioxidant -- reduced glutathione -- actually may contribute to the disease. The findings indicate a new class of drugs can be developed to treat or even prevent heart disease caused by "reductive stress," according to the study's principal author.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center have now identified a surprising and critically important novel function of the skeleton. They've shown for the first time that the skeleton is an endocrine organ that helps control our sugar metabolism and weight and, as such, is a major determinant of the development of type 2 diabetes.

Using a powerful microscope, researchers have now revealed how the molecular machinery functions that is responsible for chromosome reduction of egg cells in mice. They report that the assembly of this machinery is very different from what happens in all other cells in the body. The process is likely conserved across species, and the new insights might help shed light on defects occurring in human egg cell development.