Understanding fibromuscular dysplasia

By integrating DNA genotype and RNA-sequencing data from human samples, d’Escamard et al. identified a gene regulatory co-expression supernetwork that has an important role in fibromuscular dysplasia, a poorly understood disease affecting 3–5% of adult women, and generated a mouse model of the disease.

See d’Escamard et al.

Regenerative senescence in cardiac repair

Zhang et al. show that the transcription factor Egr1 regulates transient senescence in cardiac fibroblasts during neonatal heart regeneration and upon agrin-mediated cardiac repair in adult mice, acting downstream of the integrin–FAK–ERK1/2–Akt1 axis.

See Zhang et al.

Brain–heart axis

Haykin et al. show that activation of the reward system in the brain modulates adrenergic input to the liver and activation of the complement system, improving cardiac vascularization and recovery after acute myocardial infarction.

See Haykin et al.

Explaining heart failure

Fernandez-Patron et al. propose a unifying framework explaining how diverse risk factors such as hypertension, obesity and diabetes lead to the pathogenesis and progression of heart failure.

See Fernandez-Patron et al.

Macrophages improve the function of engineered cardiac microtissue

Hamidzada et al. show that after integration of human embryonic stem cell-derived macrophages into human cardiac microtissue, they adopt the resident fate and improve microtissue function by ingesting stressed cardiomyocytes or their cargo by efferocytosis.

See Hamidzada et al.

Histone H1.0 links cell mechanics to chromatin structure

Hu et al. describe how histone H1.0 regulates cellular responses to mechanical stimulation, inducing myofibroblast activation in the heart and linking force generation to nuclear organization and gene transcription.

See Hu et al.

Neutralizing gremlins protects against myocarditis

Perez-Shibayama et al. report that restoring BMP4 signaling with antibodies that neutralize the BMP inhibitors gremlin-1 and gremlin-2 can ameliorate myocarditis by reducing immune cell infiltration, the production of pathogenic cytokines, and pro-inflammatory activity in fibroblasts.

See Perez-Shibayama et al.

A bispecific antibody to treat bleeding disorders

Gandhi, Zivkovic, Østergaard et al. describe a bispecific antibody, HMB-001, that can be used for the potential prophylactic treatment of patients with genetic bleeding disorders.

See Ghandhi et al.

Shift in cardiometabolic and renal phenotypes in the US population

Lhoste et al. show that cardiometabolic and renal traits of the US population have shifted from phenotypes with high blood pressure and high cholesterol towards poor kidney function, hyperglycemia and severe obesity.

See Lhoste et al.