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Bidders have lined up to take over pieces of the National Center for Atmospheric Research

The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is a central organelle that coordinates protein synthesis and processing, lipid metabolism, Ca²⁺ storage, detoxification, and cellular homeostasis. These processes are rigorously regulated, and when the ER encounters external stimuli, it triggers ER stress, a main mechanism that plays a crucial role in determining cellular fate. In addition to its role in apoptosis, further research has unveiled novel physiological functions of ER stress, encompassing its...

Skin aging is a multifactorial process influenced by intrinsic and extrinsic factors, including cellular senescence, photoaging, glycation, and impaired wound healing, all of which begin at birth. Recent epigenetic research has identified non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs), particularly microRNAs (miRNAs), long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), and circular RNAs (circRNAs), as key regulators of gene networks governing skin homeostasis, regeneration, and aging. However, the literature remains fragmented, lacking...

Population aging has become a global challenge, with its molecular mechanisms incompletely understood. The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), a pleiotropic cytoplasmic transcription factor, is extensively involved in almost all hallmarks of aging, exhibiting paradoxical dual roles in senescence progression. This review summarizes the structure of STAT3 and its key posttranslational modifications (PTMs), including phosphorylation (Y705, S727), acetylation, and...

Lumbar multifidus (MF) muscle plays a key role in spinal stability, yet its adaptations to aging and disuse, which become increasingly prevalent with advancing age, remain unclear. We conducted two studies to investigate age- and inactivity-induced changes in MF size. In Study 1, we assessed 32 young adults (50% females) and 75 older adults (67% females), categorized as non-sarcopenic (NS) or probable sarcopenic (PS) based on EWGSOP2 criteria. In Study 2, we examined early MF responses to 10-day...

Interventional therapy and surgery play important roles in the treatment of various diseases, but they cause varying degrees of vascular injury. Currently, the side effects are often overlooked. Here, we observed abnormal nuclear morphology (nuclear dysmorphism) and vascular aging in injured human and rodent arteries. Platelet-derived microvesicles (PMVs) adhere to injured blood vessels, leading to nuclear dysmorphism and cell senescence in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). This occurs...

Previous studies from our lab identified functional defects in antigen-specific peripheral T follicular helper cells (pTfh), characterized by low IL-21 and high IL-2 production, contributing to non-responsiveness to the influenza vaccine in both aging and HIV. This study investigated how IL-21-induced STAT3 and IL-2-induced STAT5 activation in pTfh cells affects vaccine responses in aging people with HIV (PWH) and those without HIV (PWoH). Ninety participants, including young (Y, ≤ 40 years) and...