Volume 101 Issue 3, March 2021

Disorders involving injury to tissue stem cells may show unusually devastating clinical consequences. In acute graft-versus-host disease (aGVHD) relatively few cytotoxic immune cells target skin stem cells to produce significant morbidity and mortality. By analogy, SARS-CoV-2 initially homes to pulmonary stem cells that preferentially express the ACE2 receptor, thus potentially incurring similarly robust pathological consequences. As with aGVHD, lung stem cell targeting is a potential co-factor in explaining age-related severity of COVID-19 infection.

Both ASIC1a and VEGF are highly expressed in rheumatoid arthritis synovial tissue and are associated with vascular disease. Interfering with ASIC1a in vitro using silencing, blocking, and overexpression interferes with the release of VEGF under acid stimulation. Blocking ASIC1a in the articular cavity of rats with adjuvant arthritis not only reduces the expression of VEGF in the synovium, but also reduces the proliferation and lesions of blood vessels and interferes with the development of the disease.

Nitric oxide (NO) plays an important role in tumor biology, including the generation and maintenance of cancer stem cells (CSCs) subpopulations. Here the authors show that the inhibition of NO production in estrogen-positive breast cancer not only impact the CSC subpopulation but also enhance the efficacy of hormonal therapy with tamoxifen.

Vascular endothelial growth factor secreted by placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells (PD-MSCs) promotes follicular development and ovarian function after ovariectomy through vascular remodeling. These results provide fundamental data for understanding the therapeutic mechanisms of stem cell therapy based on placenta-derived mesenchymal stem cells PD-MSCs and provide a theoretical foundation for their application for obstetrical and gynecological diseases, including infertility and menopause.

The abnormal differentiation of Th17 cells is a vital promoter of immune thrombocytopenia (ITP) progression. In this study, the authors found that miR-199a-5p is downregulated during ITP. Supplementation of extracellular vesicles (EVs) derived from miR-199a-5p-modified ADSCs markedly repress Th17 differentiation by transferring miR-199a-5p to CD4⁺T cells, thus ameliorating experimental ITP.

Using approaches involving chimeric mice and macrophage-adipocyte cocultures, the authors demonstrate that PFKFB3 disruption only in hematopoietic cells exacerbates the severity of diet-induced adipose tissue inflammation and systemic insulin resistance. Mechanistically, macrophage factors generated in response to PFKFB3 disruption act to enhance adipocyte proinflammatory responses and impair adipocyte insulin signaling.

This study reveals that upregulation of lncRNA small nucleolar RNA host gene 5 (SNHG5), mediated by Yin Yang 1 (YY1), activates connective tissue growth factor (CTGF)/vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGFA) axis via targeting miR-26b to regulate angiogenesis of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), providing new insights into mechanisms of AML.

The authors show that plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) derived from cancer-associated fibroblasts promotes the invasion of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) cells and the migration of macrophages via lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP1). High expression of PAI-1 and/or LRP1 is associated with poor prognosis in patients with ESCC, and the PAI-1/LRP1 axis could be a target of anticancer therapy.

This study shows that exercise increases adropin levels and inhibits NLRP3 inflammasome activation in mice with diet-induced nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH). Furthermore, adropin suppresses palmitic acid-induced NLRP3 inflammasome activation in hepatocytes and Kupffer cells. These results indicate that exercise may inhibit NLRP3 inflammasome activation via adropin induction, resulting in NASH improvement.

Real-time lipid patterns can identify liver tumors and their inter-tumor and intra-tumor heterogeneity. Ceramides and related sphingolipids are a common feature of necrotic tumors and can characterize the tumor phenotype based on metabolic shifts relevant for cell death pathways. Lipid patterns have the potential to improve clinical decision-making in the near future.

This paper reports the optimisation of digital pathology approaches for evaluating drug responses in patient-derived explants at endpoint. The authors compare three image analysis software platforms and find that all three generate comparable data to that of a histomorphometrist. They also demonstrate the power of multi-immunofluorescence staining for monitoring multiple biomarkers simultaneously compared to virtual double staining of sequential sections by immunohistochemistry.