STEM CELLS

Testicles a new theory- Testicles could be a new source of stem cells, scientists say. The stem cells that make sperm can be taught to make other tissues, offering up a medical repair kit to sidestep morally charged debate over use of embryontic stem cells. Scientists have found a way to easily pick the cells out from other tissue in the testicles and grow them into batches big enough to use medically.

HIP STATS ON BREAST CANCER

Woman whose mothers have wide hips could be seven times more likely to develop breast cancer, researchers say. Daughters of woman with wide hips are 60 percent more likely than others to be diagnosed with breast cancer.

But the risk rises to more than seven fold if the mother carried them for the full 40 weeks of pregnancy, a study found. Researcher Professor David Barker said it could be explained by the effect of oestrogen. It is thought that high levels of the hormone cause dangerous changes to the immature breast tissue in the developing baby. The width of a womans hips is directly related to the amount of oestrogen she is producing.

D gets A for anti-ageing

A vitamin made when sunlight hits the skin could help slow the ageing of cells and tissues. A Kings’s College London study of more than 2000 woman found those with higher vitamin D levels showed fewer age-related changes in their DNA.

But the American Journal of clinical nutrition study stops short of proving cause and effect. A lack of vitamin D has already been linked to multiple Sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. The genetic material inside every cell has an inbuilt “clock” that counts down every time the cell reproduces itself.