Primed for Injury

Primed for Reading

Reading is an amazing skill. As you read this review, meaning flows from the page (or for many readers, the screen) into your brain. This happens automatically—you can’t choose not to understand the written word any more than the spoken one. It’s also highly efficient. Most people can process text two or three times faster than speech. Of course, humans have many amazing skills. We also identif...

RNA: primed for packing?

How does RNA's seemingly subtle 2'-hydroxyl group contribute to its diverse biological functions? Using quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) analysis, Piccirilli and colleagues find that the 2'-OH fosters van der Waals and hydrophobic interactions that play underappreciated roles in RNA structure and molecular recognition.

The Primed In Situ (PRINS) Technique: An Alternative Approach for Preimplantation Chromosomal Diagnosis

TGF-β gets primed for action

M yofibroblasts are highly con-tractile cells that repair damaged tissues by secreting and remod-eling the extracellular matrix (ECM) within a wound in order to draw it closed (1). When myofibroblasts are dysregulated, however, they continue to act on healed tissues and induce fi brosis. TGF-␤1 is a key signaling molecule within the ECM that promotes tissue fi brosis. Klingberg et al. reveal th...

Adenovirus-mediated delivery of fas ligand inhibits intimal hyperplasia after balloon injury in immunologically primed animals.

BACKGROUND Adenoviral constructs have been used for studies of injury-induced vascular hyperplasia in immunologically naive laboratory animals, but their usefulness for intra-arterial gene therapy may be limited by the prevalence of preexisting immunity to adenovirus in the patient population. Here, we explored the efficacy of adenovirus-mediated transfer of Fas ligand, a cytotoxic gene with im...