By Rich Haridy July 06, 2020 New research from the University of South Carolina is uncovering exactly how non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) influences the neurological conditions associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The study describes how a certain protein produced in the liver can travel to the brain and trigger neuroinflammation. Several recent studies have drawn...
by Sheila Evans, University of Chicago Medical Center Many heritable immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and blood-cell related traits derive from critical proteins not being made or not functioning correctly. But exactly how a person’s genes, the regulation of these genes and how the resulting proteins interact to cause disease is not widely understood....
by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Organoids of mouse pancreatic tumor cells grown “ex vivo,” outside the body. Organoids are used as a model system to study tumor biology and treatments. Credit: Tobiloba Oni, Tuveson lab/CSHL Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have found that they can stop the growth of pancreatic cancer cells by...
by Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation Two approaches for using biomaterials. In the more traditional approach (left), the biomaterial construct is mixed with cells and biomolecules outside of the body and then developed in an external bioreactor. The structure is then implanted into the body. In the more recently used, or “in situ” approach (right),...
by Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania A new study from Penn Medicine lends further evidence that the social behaviors tied to autism spectrum disorders (ASD) emerge from abnormal function of sensory neurons outside the brain. It’s an important finding, published today in the journal Cell Reports, because peripheral sensory systems—which determine...
by Salk Institute A histology image showing inflammation in colon epithelium. Weakening of regulatory T cell function induces infiltration of immune cells (small blue dots) into colon epithelium (blue layer) and causes colitis. Credit: Salk Institute The human immune system is a finely-tuned machine, balancing when to release a cellular army to deal with pathogens,...
The age-related decline of the immune system has several causes, but the involution of the thymus is an important one. The thymus is responsible for the production of mature T cells of the adaptive immune system, but the organ atrophies with age. The supply of new T cells falls off dramatically in later life, and...
Senolytic drugs that destroy senescent cells, and later on, other senotherapies that either prevent senescence or block the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), are going to be very important in the treatment of aging. Senescent cells accumulate with age and are highly damaging to tissues. Via the SASP, even comparatively small numbers of lingering senescent cells...
by UT Southwestern Medical Center This graphic illustrates three-dimensional genome organization maps obtained form a representative metastatic cancer cell line. Credit: UT Southwestern Medical Center UT Southwestern researchers have identified vast webs of small snippets of the genome that interact with each other and with genes to promote prostate cancer. Their findings, published June 22...
by University of California, San Francisco To make new memories, our brain cells first must find one another. Small protrusions that bud out from the ends of neurons’ long, branching tentacles dock neurons together so they can talk. These ports of cellular chatter—called synapses, and found in the trillions throughout the brain—allow us to represent...
