by University of California – Riverside In recent decades, the Salton Sea has been undergoing a rapid retreat, causing increased exposure to the dry lakebeds. Credit: Stan Lim, UC Riverside. Communities surrounding the Salton Sea, the inland body of water straddling California’s Riverside and Imperial counties, show high rates of asthma due, possibly, to high aerosol...
by Anne M Stark, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Gene expression in mouse knee joint chondrocytes was analyzed using single-cell RNA sequencing, which identified nine chondrocyte subpopulations with distinct molecular profiles. Credit: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Articular cartilage is a connective tissue lining the surfaces of joints. When the cartilage severely wears down, it leads to osteoarthritis...
KANAZAWA UNIVERSITY IMAGE: Caspase-1, a protease of the caspase family, is activated in response to microbial infections, cellular stresses, and so on, through inflammasome activation, resulting in the maturation of the key pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-1α and IL-1β. Although caspase-1 directly processes pro-IL-1β into the mature form, pro-IL-1α is not a substrate for caspase-1. It has...
by Baylor College of Medicine Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is the most common genetic form of brittle bone disease and results in defects of both bone and connective tissue. OI patients can have significant problems with mobility due to joint dysfunction due in part to tendinopathy. In a new study published in the...
by Scott Lafee, University of California – San Diego Metformin 500mg tablets. Credit: public domain Metformin is a widely prescribed blood sugar-lowering drug. It is often used as an early therapy (in combination with diet and lifestyle changes) for type 2 diabetes, which afflicts more than 34 million Americans. Metformin works by lowering glucose production in...
by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that a subset of T lymphocytes (immune cells seen at upper left) known as Th22 cells secrete a protein, interleukin-22 (center), that increases chemical signaling throughout the skin. This mediates inflammation that can lead to prurigo nodularis, also known as chronic itch (clinical...
by Van Andel Research Institute Chronic inflammation in the gut may propel processes in the body that give rise to Parkinson’s disease, according to a study by scientists at Van Andel Institute and Roche. The study, published in Free Neuropathology, is the latest in a growing list that links the gut and the immune system to Parkinson’s. The researchers’ findings in an...
by American Physiological Society Credit: CC0 Public Domain A new study finds that manipulating the stiffness of the collagen-based support structure of airway cells could lead to a new treatment for asthma. The study is published ahead of print in the Journal of Applied Physiology. Asthma is a respiratory condition that affects more than 300 million people...
ERA-EDTA IgA nephropathy (IgAN) is a chronic kidney disease occurring in young adults and is one of the most common reasons for kidney transplantation in this age group. IgAN is the most common form of glomerulonephritis (GN), i.e., immunologically induced inflammation of the renal glomeruli. It is characterized by glomerular deposition of immune complexes containing...
by UC Davis Credit: CC0 Public Domain An international team of researchers, led by UC Davis Health, has developed a new therapeutic approach to treating psoriatic arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disease affecting the joints. Using a novel chemical blocker targeting chemokine proteins, the researchers were able to significantly reduce skin and joint inflammation in a mouse model with psoriasis and psoriatic...
