Illustration: Stuart Bradford

Health News from Tufts

CATS & DOGS

Stem Cell Therapy for Pets

Even though veterinary stem cell science is in its infancy, several companies are already marketing therapies based on it, most often for arthritis or soft-tissue Injuries. Michael Kowaleski, V93, an orthopedic surgeon who is conducting clinical trials of stem cell treatments at Cummings School’s Foster Hospital for Small Animals, says that before agreeing to such an approach, pet owners should ask their veterinarian several pointed questions.

They should find out, first of all, why the doctor is recommending stem cell therapy, how it compares with other treatments, and what the evidence of its safety is. They should ask how the therapy’s effectiveness was measured. In the case of an arthritis treatment, for example, were tests done with a force plate to show that animals improved their ability to bear weight? Or did owners simply report that their animals seemed better?

Another crucial question is whether the research behind the therapy was peer-reviewed—determined to be valid by unbiased experts in the field. And was there a control group of animals that received a placebo, such as a saline injection? If so, how much benefit did the stem cell treatment produce compared with the placebo? Also, was the research “blind”? That is, were owners and researchers unaware of which animals received the treatment and which received the placebo, to ensure that expectations did not influence the results? Finally, you should know who funded the research, and whether a commercial concern stood to benefit from it. (FROM CUMMINGS VETERINARY MEDICINE)

NUTRITION

Your Brain On Coffee

We know coffee is good for a bracing jolt of caffeine. But it’s also rich in polyphenols, compounds that have been linked to brain health. And a study published in the journal Age suggests that while caffeine has a good effect on the aging brain, other compounds in coffee do, too, at least in rats.

For eight weeks, Barbara Shukitt-Hale, a USDA scientist at Tufts’ Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, and colleagues fed nineteen-month-old rats a diet enriched with what, for a human, would be the equivalent of zero, three, five, ten, or fifteen cups of coffee per day. Then they ran the subjects through a battery of tests to evaluate their balance, muscle strength, spatial learning, and memory. The most significant improvement was in the rats that got the ten-cup equivalent.

Next, the researchers repeated the experiment, giving the rats a caffeine supplement to mimic what they had consumed from the coffee. The rats on the supplement performed better than the control group, but not as well as those that had received coffee. Shukitt-Hale notes that future studies could look at how polyphenols and, most likely, other bioactive compounds in coffee work together with caffeine to help the brain. (FROM TUFTS NUTRITION)

MEDICINE

Antidepressants and Preterm Births

The use of antidepressants during pregnancy has increased dramatically over the last two decades. Meanwhile, rates of preterm birth in the United States have been climbing. Adam Urato, a specialist in maternal-fetal medicine and assistant professor at Tufts School of Medicine, doesn’t think that’s a coincidence. He and his colleagues combed through relevant research conducted between 1993 and 2012, and their meta-analysis of that data, published in the online journal PLOS One, supports that view.

Of the forty-one studies his group found on antidepressants and preterm birth, thirty-nine showed an increased risk, although not always a statistically significant one. Yet, he notes, “when you put it all together in a meta-analysis, what you find is roughly a doubling of the risk of preterm birth in women who are on these medications into the third trimester.” He adds, “Several of the studies are showing very high rates of preterm birth. Ten percent is considered a high rate. But some of these studies are showing rates as high as 25 percent—and one was even as high as 30.8 percent.”

Such findings contradict the popular wisdom. “The message that a lot of pregnant women and women of child-bearing age and their doctors get is that these drugs are basically safe in pregnancy. That’s absolutely not what the science is showing.” (FROM TUFTS MEDICINE)

DENTAL

Got Teeth? Use Fluoride

It’s never too soon to start treating a baby’s teeth with fluoride, according to new guidelines issued by the American Dental Association. When the first tooth erupts, parents should begin brushing it with tiny amounts of fluoride toothpaste. The advice, based on the ADA’s review of numerous recent studies of childhood oral health trends, is a departure from the organization’s longstanding recommendation that children under age two should not have fluoride beyond what’s in the water supply.

Cheen Loo, DI10, associate professor and interim chair of pediatric dentistry at Tufts, backs the revised ADA guidelines. At Tufts’ pediatric dental clinic, she says, “we see a lot of kids coming in at the age of one-and-a-half or two, and they have cavities. Because of their young age, we end up not being able to help them in the clinic, and have to treat them in the hospital operating room under general anesthesia. So we are really trying to prevent that from happening.” (FROM TUFTS DENTAL MEDICINE)