INTRODUCTION: Obesity is a major risk factor for the development of osteoarthritis in both weight-bearing and nonweight-bearing joints. The mechanisms by which obesity influences the structural or symptomatic features of ...

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a major contributor to the global cardiovascular disease burden. The clinical profile and outcomes of AF patients with valvular heart diseases in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have not ...

As indicated by several recent studies, magnetic susceptibility of the brain is influenced mainly by myelin in the white matter and by iron deposits in the deep nuclei. Myelination and iron deposition in the brain evolve ...

The inherent complexity of aging-related traits can temper progress in unraveling the genetic origins of healthspan. We focus on two generations in the Framingham Heart Study, the original (FHS) and offspring (FHSO) cohorts, ...

BACKGROUND: Anxiety produced by environmental threats can impair goal-directed processing and is associated with a range of psychiatric disorders, particularly when aversive events occur unpredictably. The prefrontal cortex ...

Relationships between aging, disease risks, and longevity are not yet well understood. For example, joint increases in cancer risk and total survival observed in many human populations and some experimental aging studies ...

Enduring interest in the Apolipoprotein E (ApoE) polymorphism is ensured by its evolutionary-driven uniqueness in humans and its prominent role in geriatrics and gerontology. We use large samples of longitudinally followed ...

Certificates of Confidentiality, issued by agencies of the U.S. government, are regarded as an important tool for meeting ethical and legal obligations to safeguard research participants' privacy and confidentiality. By ...

BACKGROUND: Previous work has demonstrated the potential for peripheral blood (PB) gene expression profiling for the detection of disease or environmental exposures. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We have sought to determine the ...

The de novo assembly of repeat-rich mammalian genomes using only high-throughput short read sequencing data typically results in highly fragmented genome assemblies that limit downstream applications. Here, we present an ...