Issues

Summary: The DMM Editor-in-Chief discusses the importance of accessibility to published research and outlines the implications of new Read & Publish agreements for the DMM community.

Summary: Aging of the immune system drives ineffective immune responses in older people. Autophagy-inducing dietary interventions and drugs rejuvenate adaptive immune cells and could extend a healthy lifespan or offer new strategies to treat age-related diseases.

Summary: Lymphoid tissue fitness can determine disease severity and affect outcome by altering the course of immune responses. We discuss how lymphoid tissue function can impact disease progression during infections, chronic inflammatory conditions and cancer.

Summary: Recent evidence demonstrates that alternative mRNA splicing can influence tumour heterogeneity, its plasticity and a patient's response to therapeutic intervention. Here, we review the current knowledge of the role of alternative splicing in these processes.

Summary: Generation and characterization of two phenotypically different and transplantable mouse model lung squamous cell carcinoma cell lines – UN-SCC679 and UN-SCC680 – to be used in different research scenarios, including immunotherapy.

Summary: A gene–environment interaction involving the Vangl2 gene and sulfated glycosaminoglycans prevents mouse neural tube closure. Convergent extension shaping of the embryo is unaffected, implicating other mechanism(s) in this process.

Summary: Young adult zebrafish mutants and a mouse model of a genetic variant promoting early- and late-onset Alzheimer's disease, respectively, share changes in brain gene expression, indicating disturbance of oxidative phosphorylation.

Summary: Damage signaling from tumors mediated by JAK/STAT-activating Upd cytokines delays the Drosophila larva–pupa transition through co-option of a JAK/STAT developmental role in the prothoracic gland.

Summary: The zebrafish embryo is a quick, sensitive and powerful tool for evaluating the in vivo toxicity and efficacy of newly identified lipophilic anti-tuberculosis compounds formulated in nanoparticles.

Summary: Novel models of desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) reveal a role for the ERBB pathway in regulating growth of this sarcoma and provide a rationale for evaluating EGFR antagonists in patients with DSRCT.

Editor's choice: Using bleomycin-induced lung injury as a mouse model for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, this study identifies metabolomic and lipidomic changes in fibrosis reflecting higher energy demand, proliferation, tissue remodeling, collagen deposition and inflammation.

Summary: This study presents an animal model that reflects the neurochemical pattern found in Parkinson's patients, the basis of the new and evolving catecholaldehyde hypothesis for the disease.