Preclinical studies indicate that cavity-resident macrophages in the peritoneal and pleural spaces contribute to immunosuppression and cancer progression. While these macrophages typically accumulate on organ surfaces rather than deeply infiltrating into tissues, their behavior and function in tumors remains unclear.

Hypertrophic chondrocytes are deeply involved in the growth of mammalian bones. Researchers find that these cells transform into multiple functional cell types, including those responsible for lengthening bones, maintaining the periosteum, and promoting the invasion of blood vessels that supply newly formed bone. Thrombospondin-4, a key signaling molecule produced by these cells, drives blood vessel formation. These findings open new avenues for enhancing bone repair and healing injured bones.

Myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) arises from defective blood stem cells that progressively lose their normal functions. Japanese researchers have revealed how changes in chromatin accessibility—how DNA is packaged—reprogram these stem cells toward faulty myeloid gene activity. This shift disrupts the balance of blood cell development and drives disease progression. The team also developed a chromatin-based “progenitor score” that accurately reflects disease severity and predicts patient prognosis in MDS.

Researchers at Stockholm University have uncovered surprising insights into a large, previously unstudied group of bacteria, some originating from Swedish lakes. The findings reveal how bacterial lifecycles have evolved and even reversed their complexity over time. The study is published in Nature Communications.

Researchers have found a way to control protein levels inside different tissues of a whole, living animal for the first time. The technological advance works while a nematode worm continues to live normally: eating, moving and growing as the system quietly adjusts protein levels inside the tissues of its body. The study paves the way for designing completely new experiments that were impossible to carry out with current techniques and unravel the molecular underpinnings of whole-body processes like ageing.