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Additional validation studies including randomized control trials in patients with AAA, however, are needed to determine whether adding molecular imaging by PET complements anatomical imaging. Adding Molecular Imaging may Pave the Way for More Personalized Care Akin to adding fractional flow reserve to extend information available from the anatomical "luminograms" provided by left heart catheterization,[16] imaging biological processes known to contribute to AAA pathogenesis may further enhance risk stratification and identify those patients who may most benefit from surgical intervention. Five years after the initial diagnosis of AAA, smaller AAAs (< 4 cm in diameter) have a 2% rupture risk in contrast to larger AAAs (> 5 cm), which have greater than 25% rupture risk. [Extracted from the article]

Loss of skeletal integrity during ageing and disease is associated with an imbalance in the opposing actions of osteoblasts and osteoclasts1. Here we show that intrinsic ageing of skeletal stem cells (SSCs)2 in mice alters signalling in the bone marrow niche and skews the differentiation of bone and blood lineages, leading to fragile bones that regenerate poorly. Functionally, aged SSCs have a decreased bone- and cartilage-forming potential but produce more stromal lineages that express high levels of pro-inflammatory and pro-resorptive cytokines. Single-cell RNA-sequencing studies link the functional loss to a diminished transcriptomic diversity of SSCs in aged mice, which thereby contributes to the transformation of the bone marrow niche. Exposure to a youthful circulation through heterochronic parabiosis or systemic reconstitution with young haematopoietic stem cells did not reverse the diminished osteochondrogenic activity of aged SSCs, or improve bone mass or skeletal healing parameters in aged mice. Conversely, the aged SSC lineage promoted osteoclastic activity and myeloid skewing by haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells, suggesting that the ageing of SSCs is a driver of haematopoietic ageing. Deficient bone regeneration in aged mice could only be returned to youthful levels by applying a combinatorial treatment of BMP2 and a CSF1 antagonist locally to fractures, which reactivated aged SSCs and simultaneously ablated the inflammatory, pro-osteoclastic milieu. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into the complex, multifactorial mechanisms that underlie skeletal ageing and offer prospects for rejuvenating the aged skeletal system.An analysis of skeletal stem cells in mice reveals that bone ageing occurs at the level of local niches affecting skeletal and haematopoietic lineage output, which may influence systemic aspects of multi-organ physiological ageing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scar wars: Scars developing after skin wound can cause important functional, aesthetic, psychological, and social consequences. The mechanisms mediating scar formation after skin wound remain to be completely elucidated. Here, Griffin et al. showed that pathological scarring induced by overexpressing JUN in mice was mediated by CD36-dependent fibroblast modulation that resulted in increased fibrosis at the site of injury. Pharmacological CD36 inhibition with salvianolic acid B reduced the fibrosis process in human fibroblasts and scar formation in Jun-overexpressing mice. The results suggest that targeting CD36 might be effective in reducing hypertrophic scar formation during skin wound healing. Pathologic skin scarring presents a vast economic and medical burden. Unfortunately, the molecular mechanisms underlying scar formation remain to be elucidated. We used a hypertrophic scarring (HTS) mouse model in which Jun is overexpressed globally or specifically in α-smooth muscle or collagen type I–expressing cells to cause excessive extracellular matrix deposition by skin fibroblasts in the skin after wounding. Jun overexpression triggered dermal fibrosis by modulating distinct fibroblast subpopulations within the wound, enhancing reticular fibroblast numbers, and decreasing lipofibroblasts. Analysis of human scars further revealed that JUN is highly expressed across the wide spectrum of scars, including HTS and keloids. CRISPR-Cas9–mediated JUN deletion in human HTS fibroblasts combined with epigenomic and transcriptomic analysis of both human and mouse HTS fibroblasts revealed that JUN initiates fibrosis by regulating CD36. Blocking CD36 with salvianolic acid B or CD36 knockout model counteracted JUN-mediated fibrosis efficacy in both human fibroblasts and mouse wounds. In summary, JUN is a critical regulator of pathological skin scarring, and targeting its downstream effector CD36 may represent a therapeutic strategy against scarring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the post-1989 period, various forms of nationalism came back to haunt Eastern and Central Europe. Why are they so virulent and so dangerous in modern times? Since the modernization of the nineteenth century, language has not only been a normal means of communication and a substantial part of human identity but also plays an increasingly important political role: public opinion, media and politics all depend on a common language, which tends to become the language of the state. The process of linguistic homogenization by the state, which had already been completed in Western Europe, failed in this context. Europe will therefore have to come to terms with its linguistic diversity in the future. Is this nothing more than a hindrance? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Money is one of the most mysterious cultural inventions at all. Far from being a mere means of exchange, it is at the same time a carrier of power, which can be precisely distributed in monetary economies only, instead of violent struggle and bloodsheds in traditional societies. Money looses human ties, but widens at the same time efficient freedom of every individual. It is not a special sort of goods, as gold or silver was, but sublimates gradually to fiduciary money up to electronic accounts. Thus, it can be perhaps best understood as a sort of institutionalized trust, whose validity has to be incessantly confirmed in a sort of permanent plebiscite, in the daily actions of all its users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]