mouse model

Repairing damaged DNA appears to drive aging by causing the loss of epigenetic information, but restoring that information reverses such effects, a study finds.

The expansion of mucus-degraders in the mouse gut—possibly due to poor nutrition—thins the colon’s mucus layer and may weaken defenses against blood-infecting microbes.

This year, cancer researchers uncovered a variety of ways that tumors can survive and spread, ranging from damaging their own DNA to exploiting the nearby microenvironment for nutrients.

A previously unknown kind of ribosome is responsible for folding sperm proteins, which decay before fertilization if prepared by other ribosomes.

A mouse study concludes color-detecting cones in the eye and a subset of neurons in the brain’s thalamus are why green light exposure has an analgesic effect.

After injecting moderate doses of the dissociative anesthetic into the animals, previously “awake” brain cells go dark, and those that had been dormant suddenly light up.

It’s not clear why grain-fed mice are better able to recover after infection, but a study’s findings suggest food type may skew the results of animal studies.

In stressful conditions, specialized protein complexes in microglia induce neurotoxic activity in astrocytes that leads to the change in behavior.

Human and mouse oral tumors recruit nerves to produce peptides that the cancer cells need to survive—but this process can be blocked with a migraine drug.

A high-fat diet induced changes to the animals’ vaginal microbiomes that boosted survival after exposure to the virus.

Immune cells get a lot of shine when it comes to fighting infection, but it turns out that fat might be just as important for removing parasitic invaders.

Specific neurons in the brainstem control sickness behaviors not directly caused by a pathogen, such as tiredness and lack of appetite, a mouse study finds.

Mice with overactive LINE-1 retrotransposons in their brains exhibit movement difficulties, suggesting the genetic elements may play a role in ataxia in humans. 

A single amino acid substitution in a protein causes increased neuron production in the frontal lobes of humans compared to Neanderthals—a tiny difference that could have given our species a cognitive edge, researchers say.

The findings will likely help elucidate the effects of chromosome fusions, which can cause disease but have also contributed to evolution.

Disturbing circadian rhythms in organoids and mice increases intestinal tumor growth, findings that may explain a recent rise in colon cancer among young adults, the researchers behind the work say.

Mixtures of viruses that attack inflammatory bowel disease–causing bacteria in mice also survive the digestive tract and are well-tolerated in humans, a study finds.