Changes in biology of internal fat may be the leading cause of heart failure
Peer-Reviewed Publication
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 31-Aug-2025 13:11 ET (31-Aug-2025 17:11 GMT/UTC)
Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) appears to develop as a result of changes in the biology of a person’s internal fat tissue, according to the Adipokine Hypothesis, a new way of understanding how fat may impact the heart. The hypothesis paper was published today in JACC, the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and is being presented at ESC Congress 2025. The author of the paper is Milton Packer, MD, FACC, Distinguished Scholar in Cardiovascular Science at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas and Visiting Professor at Imperial College in London.
Salk Institute researchers discover new microprotein SLC35A4-MP regulates mitochondrial health and cellular response to metabolic stress in mouse brown fat cells, making SLC35A4-MP one of the first few microproteins to be characterized in a mouse mode—validating the physiological relevance of microproteins. The findings may help design future microprotein-based treatments for obesity, aging, and mitochondrial disorders.
Millions of women use hormonal contraceptives, most often for pregnancy prevention but also to manage health conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. A new study from Rice University suggests these medications may affect more than reproductive health.
Published in Hormones and Behavior, the study, “Emotion regulation strategies differentially impact memory in hormonal contraceptive users,” found that hormonal contraceptives appear to shape how women experience emotions in the moment and how they remember emotional events later.
Lead author Beatriz M. Brandao, a graduate student in Rice’s Department of Psychological Sciences, and her collaborators compared women on hormonal contraceptives with naturally cycling women as they viewed emotional images and used strategies to regulate their feelings. Women using hormonal contraceptives showed stronger emotional reactions overall, but remembered fewer details of negative experiences — a pattern researchers say could help women move on from unpleasant events rather than replay them.
The findings add nuance to ongoing questions about how birth control affects not only the body but also the mind, with implications for mental health and women’s health research.
An international team led by researchers at Lund University in Sweden has identified the molecular tools needed to reprogram ordinary cells into specialised immune cells. The discovery, published in Immunity, could pave the way for more precise and personalised cancer immunotherapies.
The microscopic alliance between algae and bacteria offers rare, step-by-step snapshots of how bacteria lose genes and adapt to increasing host dependence. This is shown by a new study led by researchers from Stockholm University, in collaboration with the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Linnaeus University, published in Current Biology.
Cornell researchers have uncovered the genetic triggers that cause male and female bovine embryos to develop differently, as early as seven to eight days after fertilization. The breakthrough in basic science has implications for human health – such as drug development and in vitro fertilization – and for bovine health and dairy industry sustainability.