Insulin is one of the most well known hormones in the human body for its role in regulating blood glucose. While its absence or inaction causes diabetes (Type-I and Type-II), it is also associated with several metabolic disorders such as obesity, hypertension, cancer and aging. Levels of insulin, produced by the pancreas, fluctuate between fasted […]
Advanced technologies have been used to solve a long-standing mystery about why some people develop serious illness when they are infected with the malaria parasite, while others carry the infection asymptomatically. An international team used mass cytometry—an in-depth way of characterizing individual cells—and machine learning to discover ‘immune signatures’ associated with symptomatic or asymptomatic infections […]
Chronic psychosocial stress—which involves a pathway called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis)—may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. A new review published in Biological Reviews describes how environmental and genetic factors can impact individuals’ HPA axis, and ultimately their risk of Alzheimer’s disease. The review also proposes a mechanism by which genetic factors that […]
The complex patterns of genetic ancestry uncovered from genomic data in health care systems can provide valuable insights into both genetic and environmental factors underlying many common and rare diseases—insights that are far more targeted and specific than those derived from traditional ethnic or racial labels like Hispanic or Black, according to a team of […]
Ciliopathies are genetic disorders caused by defects in the structure and function of cilia, microtubule-based organelles present on the surface of almost every cell in the human body, which play crucial roles in cell signaling. Ciliopathies present a wide range of often severe clinical symptoms, frequently affecting the head and face and leading to conditions […]
Scientists at The Wistar Institute discovered that Early Growth Response 1 (EGR1), a protein that turns on and off specific genes during blood cell development, inhibits expression of pro-inflammatory genes in macrophages. As part of their function to protect the body against pathogens, macrophages play a major role in initiation, maintenance, and resolution of inflammation. […]
Stem cells are considered one of the most promising tools in the field of regenerative medicine because they are a cell type that can give rise to all the cells in our bodies and that has the potential to be used to treat tissue loss due to damage or disease. Stem cells that are similar […]
Cardiovascular disorders are leading causes of morbidity and death worldwide. Age-associated changes in arterial properties, such as endothelial dysfunction and structural alterations, are considered to be initial events in the development of atherosclerosis. Due to the high heterogeneity of vascular cells from different sources, our understanding of human arterial aging and the development of interventions […]
To replace aging and worn cells, the body primarily uses a process called mitosis, in which one cell divides into two. When a cell is ready to divide, it duplicates its DNA so a complete copy is available for each of the daughter cells. In this process, the DNA pieces, or chromosomes, must be precisely […]
