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A new study has found a higher rate of birth defects among babies conceived by assisted reproduction compared to babies conceived naturally.

In the study, almost 3 percent of infants conceived with assisted reproduction were diagnosed with a major birth defect, compared to less than 2 percent of babies conceived naturally, Dr. Darine El-Chaar and colleagues from The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, Canada and colleagues found.

The investigators looked at all deliveries in the province of Ontario in 2005 for which information was available on reproductive assistance. Their analysis included 43,462 babies conceived naturally; 298 whose mothers had been given drugs to promote ovulation; 173 conceived when sperm was injected into the mother’s uterus (intrauterine insemination); and 319 conceived by in-vitro fertilization (IVF).

Among infants conceived with any type of assistance, 2.91 percent were diagnosed with a major birth defect in the womb or soon after birth, compared to 1.86 percent of the babies conceived naturally. These infants also were more likely to have birth defects involving the gastrointestinal system, the cardiovascular system, or the muscles and skeleton, although their risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida or facial defects such as cleft palate was not increased.

When the researchers looked at the assisted reproduction techniques separately, they found that 2.35 percent of those born after ovulation induction, 2.89 percent of those born via intrauterine insemination, and 3.45 percent of those born via IVF had major birth defects.

However, the researchers note, because the numbers of women in these individual groups was small, the findings could have been due to chance, and the differences were not statistically significant.

The average age of the mothers who had conceived naturally was around 29, compared to about 32 for those who had ovulation induction, 34 for those who underwent intrauterine insemination, and 35 for those who conceived via IVF.

It’s scientifically plausible, the researchers note, that babies born with assisted reproduction would be at greater risk for major birth defects, “given the interventions required in these treatments.”

One contributing factor could be the greater age of mothers — and fathers — who undergo this treatment, they add. “Further research in these interventions is needed to clarify each individual contribution,” the researchers conclude.

Embryonic stem cells, which can turn into a variety of cells in the body, can produce temporary skin that could help burn victims while they’re waiting for skin grafts, new research from France suggests.

The findings, reported in the Nov. 20 issue of The Lancet, could lead to treatments that build on the existing use of cell therapy to help burn patients recover from injuries.

In existing cell therapy, a person’s own skin cells are grown in the laboratory to provide replacement skin. But it takes weeks for the process to occur, and burn patients can suffer from a variety of complications while they wait for skin grafts.

In a new study on mice, stem cells produced skin cells, and the skin grafts appeared to be similar to human skin, the researchers reported.

They wrote that the new skin cells “could have clinical relevance as an unlimited resource for temporary skin replacement in patients with large burns awaiting autologous grafts.”

In a commentary, Australian doctors said the finding “takes research into regenerative skin stem cells to the next level.”

Parents who take the time to know what their teenage children are up to and have strong anti-drug views can be effective in reducing their children’s marijuana use, a new study says.

Among all the illicit drugs, marijuana is the most widely used by teens, with nearly 42 percent of high school seniors having tried it, according to the study authors.

“We’ve been working on attenuating drug use in kids,” said lead researcher William Crano, a professor of psychology at Claremont Graduate University, in Claremont, Calif. “What we have been noticing in our research is that parental monitoring seems to have a strong relationship to lessening of drug use in young adolescents.”

To determine if they were on the right track, Crano and his colleague Andrew Lac, a doctoral student at Claremont, decided to see what other research had found on the effect of parental monitoring on teen drug use –particularly marijuana.

So, Crano and Lac reviewed 17 studies, which involved more than 35,000 people. The studies all had adolescent participants, focused on marijuana and monitoring by parents, and the level of parental monitoring was evaluated by the teens themselves.

“We found the effect was there,” Crano said, especially for teenage girls. “It was clear that kids who thought their parents were monitoring them used much less marijuana than kids who didn’t.”

That finding held true for all 17 studies, Crano said. “The interesting thing is this has to do with kids’ perception of parental monitoring, not necessarily what their parents are actually doing,” he said.

“If your kids think that you know what they are doing, and where they’re at, and who they’re with and what they are doing when they are not in your sight, that has a big impact on the kind of trouble they are going to get into,” he added.

Crano thinks these findings, published in the November issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, would hold up if researchers looked at other drug use or other bad behaviors. Continued smoking of marijuana can lead to a number of serious health threats, including depression, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers, the researchers said.

There are two ways parents can monitor their children, Crano said. “Either they watch them like a hawk or the kid discloses what he’s up to,” he said. Both methods work to keep children away from drugs, he said.

“If parents give the impression to their kids that they really care about them, that they are really watching what they are doing, that they are concerned, that has a strong impact on what the children are going to do in terms of antisocial behavior, which includes marijuana use,” Crano said.

R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, agrees that parents have a key role to play in keeping their children from using drugs.

“It’s the most significant role,” Kerlikowske said. “A lot of the advertisements, a lot of the information out there has made parents much more comfortable in speaking to their children, particularly about drugs,” he said.

The White House drug czar said parental monitoring, along with school and community programs, can be effective ways of steering children away from drugs.

“If you have parents involved in prevention work, and if you have some school-based curriculum around drugs, and there can be some support in neighborhoods and community groups and church — that is a very strong approach to keeping kids healthy,” he said.