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Adult mammalian hearts cannot repair by themselves after injury due to limited proliferation of cardiomyocytes; removal of cell cycle blocker and/or addition of drugs that boost proliferation of cardiomyocytes provide potential means to cardiac regeneration. Three publications that appeared recently in Nature and Cell Research now provide new hope to the treatment of heart injuries.
Researchers at the University of Cambridge, UK have succeeded in reconstructing mouse embryos by combining pluripotent embryonic and multipotent trophoblast stem cells in a 3D scaffold; the study from the laboratory of Professor Zernicka-Goetz, recently published in Science, provides a break-through tool to probe early mammalian development outside the uterus. Achieving a similar feat with human cells might necessitate reconsideration of the 14-day rule as a limitation of such research.
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) contribute to breast cancer progression and dissemination; TAM-targeting strategies aimed at their reprogramming show promising preclinical results. In a new report Guerriero and colleagues demonstrate that a novel HDAC Class IIa inhibitor, TMP195, can reprogram monocytes and macrophages in the tumor into cells able to sustain a robust CD8 T cell-mediated anti-tumoral immune response.
Membrane transporter proteins are critical for cellular uptake and export of molecules, and are reported to function by a number of different molecular mechanisms. The new occluded state structure of the uracil transporter, UraA, from Escherichia coli, reveals that both coordinated movement of the two domains of a single protomer together with dimer formation are important for transport activity.
