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Volume 10 Issue 12, December 2004

Cholesterol gallstone disease occurs when cholesterol builds up in bile and precipitates in the gallbladder. Previous work suggested that the nuclear hormone receptor FXR (farnesoid X receptor) helps maintain normal bile acid metabolism. On page 1352 of this issue, Moschetta et al. show that mice lacking FXR have symptoms of cholesterol gallstone disease, and that a compound that activates FXR prevents gallstone formation. The cover image shows cholesterol monohydrate crystals from gallbladder bile of mice with cholesterol gallstone disease.

Volume 10 Issue 12

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Editorial

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News & Views

  • The US Food and Drug Administration has approved only one therapy for ischemic stroke, recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), which can increase blood flow to damaged brain tissue—but it can also have severe side effects and must be administered shortly after stroke. Experiments combining the drug with activated protein C (APC) may provide a solution (pages 1379–1383).

    • Eng H Lo
    News & Views

  • The human genome is peppered with genes for small microRNAs, whose functions are only beginning to come to light. One such microRNA is now implicated in the secretion of insulin from pancreatic beta cells.

    • Craig C Mello
    • Michael P Czech
    News & Views

  • Drug discovery is either an exact business that is based on detailed knowledge of target structure or it is a fishing expedition that uncovers new drugs through screening of random compounds for their biological effect on target function. Isolation of a new p53 activator with anticancer properties strengthens the reputation of this second approach (pages 1321–1328).

    • Andrei V Gudkov
    News & Views

  • Once activated, some T cells home to distinct sites in the body, such as the intestine and inflamed skin. Research in mice shows that dendritic cells in the gut produce a derivative of vitamin A, retinoic acid, that gives T cells directions.

    • Bengt Johansson-Lindbom
    • William W Agace
    News & Views

  • Gallstones develop in response to an imbalance of lipids in bile, the digestive fluid produced in the liver. A compound that restores the balance prevents gallstone formation in mouse models (pages 1352–1358).

    • Kerry B Goralski
    • Christopher J Sinal
    News & Views

  • Three reactions diversify antibody genes in human somatic cells of the B lineage: VDJ recombination, somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination. The discovery of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) has led to the elucidation of a unified molecular mechanism for initiation of the last two reactions and suggests why B cells undergoing these reactions are prone to cancer-associated DNA damage.

    • Michel C Nussenzweig
    • Frederick W Alt
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  • Emerging infectious diseases pose serious threats to public health in developed and developing countries.

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