Issues

Summary: The author provides some tips on what to consider before you begin drug screening.

Summary: We review genetic models of obesity, their optogenetic and chemogenetic successors, and the use of dietary manipulations and meal-feeding regimes.

Summary: The ulnar-mammary syndrome (UMS) gene, Tbx3, is required for development of posterior forelimb bones, muscles and their attachment sites. This broadens the UMS phenotype and suggests a new muscle-specification model.

Summary: The specific hepatic expression of insulin receptor isoform A, but not isoform B, is able to revert, in the long term, the global glucose intolerance observed in diabetic mice.

Summary: A forward genetic screen approach unveils a new mechanism, involving Nr2f1 and/or A830082K12Rik overexpression in neural crest cells, that could promote development of Waardenburg syndrome and Hirschsprung disease.

Editors' choice: Cultured Parkinson's disease lymphocytes are metabolically hyperactive, suggesting a new understanding of the underlying cytopathology and biomarkers for this and potentially other neurodegenerative diseases.

Summary: This work illustrates how a specific genetic predisposition in combination with exposure to an environmental factor can result in a severe birth defect, providing a new opportunity to develop prevention strategies.

Summary: Chemical chaperone 4PBA fully restores Cl⁻ conductance activity for mutant bestrophin-1 proteins associated with inherited retinal dystrophy, autosomal recessive bestrophinopathy.

Summary: Gait-profile assessment is an objective quantitative measurement to monitor functional impairment in arthritis models. Longstanding functional impairment correlates with inflammation-driven structural damage.

Summary: Expression of thyroid transporter specifically in the blood–brain barrier of zebrafish, and pharmacological treatments with thyroid hormone analogs and clemastine, rescue myelin deficiencies.

Summary: We assessed the presence of HSV types 1 and 2 in the brain tissue of a large non-institutionalised autopsy cohort, providing evidence of asymptomatic access of HSV to the brain.

Summary: Obesity induced by long-day photoperiod in voles is not accompanied by impaired glucose tolerance or insulin sensitivity and might be a useful model of ‘healthy obesity’.

Summary: The interaction of the long form of latent-transforming growth factor beta-binding protein 4 and fibulin-4 is essential for survival as well as for the formation of elastic fibers.

Summary: In a GALT-deficient Drosophila model of classic galactosemia, Gal-1P accumulation is not required for compromised larval survival following galactose exposure or adult movement and fecundity phenotypes.

Summary: Inhibition of VEGF signaling enhances recovery from acute ethanol-induced injury in the livers of zebrafish larvae, by directly suppressing fibrogenesis and angiogenesis, and indirectly ameliorating hepatic steatosis.

Summary: Magnetic resonance imaging is shown to allow the nondestructive assessment of acute injury and scar formation in vocal fold mucosa, as demonstrated ex vivo using a preclinical rat model.

Summary: Development and systematic characterisation of an in vitro otopathogenic infection model of the murine middle ear epithelium as a tool to better understand the complex pathophysiology of Otitis media.