1. A study found that oxytocin, a hormone associated with social bonding, stimulated reward centers in males and increased romantic bonding when males viewed photos of their female partners. Males rated their partner's faces as more attractive and showed increased activity in dopamine reward centers compared to other women's faces, even with just oxytocin and no placebo. 2. A new technique successfully grew functional lab-grown kidneys in rats by stripping cells from old kidneys and seeding the extracellular matrix with new healthy cells. This technique could help the many people awaiting kidney transplants by generating personalized organs without immunosuppression. 3. A study analyzing initial and recurrent glioma tumors found that recurrent tumors are seeded from cells of

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UCLA Undergraduate Science Journal Volume 27, Spring 2014
NEWSBEATS
More than Just a Female Face: In-
creased Romantic Bonding in Males
Karen Hoi
Oxytocin (OXT) is a hormone associated with social
bonds between romantic partners. Researchers recently
investigated OXT and its stimulation of dopamine reward
centers in romantic bonds felt by men. Men were given an
OXT or placebo treatment, and then shown photographs of
their female partners, women they knew, and women com-
pletely unrelated but similar in physical appearance to their
loved ones while an fMRI scan was performed. With OXT
treatment, men rated their partners’ faces as significant-
ly more attractive than the other women. Furthermore, the
ventral tegmental area (VTA) and the nucleus accumbens
(NAcc), both dopamine reward centers, were increasingly
stimulated with the OXT treatment, but not with the placebo
treatment. These results indicate that OXT levels in the body
may stimulate male reward centers by just looking at their
female partner’s face, and may significantly affect romantic
bonding.
Reference: Scheele et al. (2013). Oxytocin enhances brain reward system re-
sponses in men viewing the face of their female partner. PNAS. 110:20308–
20313.
The face of a female partner may
stimulate reward centers and ro-
mantic bonding felt by males.
Image Source: Karen Hoi
Regenerated kidney will have
the structure and functionality
of the original.
Imitating Starfish: Humans on the
Path to Regenerating Organs
Lillian Boodaghians
A new study in which functional, lab grown kidneys
have been successfully transplanted into rats presents
hope for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who
are awaiting kidney transplants or are in the later stages
of kidney disease, requiring dialysis. The technique in-
volves obtaining an old kidney, stripping it of its cells but
leaving the protein components of the extracellular ma-
trix intact as a scaffold upon which new, healthy endo-
thelial and epithelial cells are injected and can grow into
a new kidney. The functionality of the kidney is borne
though maintaining the spacial relationships of the orig-
inal kidney cells with the seeded cells. The technique
poses great advantages over traditional organ transplant,
mainly in that the kidney would be constructed of the
patients’ own tissues and would eliminate the lifelong
threat of immunosuppression and possible organ rejec-
tion.
Reference: Song et al. (2013) Regeneration and experimental orthotopic
transplantation of a bioengineered kidney. Nature Medicine. 19:646-651.
Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
File:Hunter_enlarged_kidney.jpg
Mutational Analysis of Recurrent Glioma
Melissa Truong
Tumor recurrence is a leading cause of cancer mortality, mainly because the genetic land-
scape of tumors is constantly evolving. The acquisition of new mutations can drive residual
tumor cells into a more aggressive state, even after surgery. Gliomas are a type of brain can-
cer that are particularly susceptible to recurrence. Researchers performed genome sequence
analysis of initial and recurrent human gliomas to examine the extent of how recurrent gli-
omas differ from their initial tumors. Additionally, they examined how the recurrent tumor
study suggests that recurrent tumors are seeded from cells from the initial tumor early in its
evolutionary path. Future studies must take into account tumor evolution and weigh the risks
Reference: Johnson, B. E. et al. (2014) Mutational analysis reveals the origin and therapy-driven evolution of recurrent
glioma. Science. 343, 189–193.
Grade 2 glioma in the left pa-
rietal lobe.
Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/
wikipedia/commons/7/7b/Glioma.gif