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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 7h

Homps-Legrand, @arnaud-mailleux.bsky.social & co reveal a novel mesenchymal cell subpopulation, identified by the Prrx1 transcription factor, that emerges during lung fibrosis in mice and exhibits protective, anti-scarring properties. 🐭 🫁
doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

Identification of cells expressing the Prrx1enh promoter in the lung and ventral skin at baseline. (A) Timeline of vehicle and tamoxifen treatments. Prrx1:CreERT2; Rosa26iTomato naive (Prrx1enh-tdT) mice were injected with vehicle or tamoxifen every day for 5 days. Lungs and ventral skin were collected at Day 10 after a wash-out time of 5 days. (B) Representative tdTomato immunohistochemistry (n=5 to 6 per group, brown staining) in Prrx1enh-tdT mouse lungs (left column) or ventral skin (right column) treated with either vehicle (top row) or tamoxifen (bottom row). Nuclei were counterstained with Haematoxylin. Left column: note the absence of tdTomato staining in the lungs collected from both vehicle- and tamoxifen-treated animals. Right column: note the few tdTomato-positive areas in the vehicle-treated animals (Cre leakage) compared to the numerous tdTomato-positive areas in the tamoxifen-treated group. Scale bar: 50 µm. (C) Quantification of the area of tdTomato-positive cells (% of section) in the lung (circles; n=5) and skin (squares; n=5 to 6) after vehicle (filled) or tamoxifen (open) treatment; data shown as dot plots with median. Nuclei were counterstained with Haematoxylin. Mann–Whitney U-test: ***P≤0.001. The absence of statistical labelling indicates non-significative results.

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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 11h

📩 We invite you to submit your latest research for our upcoming special issue on #InVitroModels of #HumanDisease.

Why publish?
🎓Expert academic editors: @vivianlilab.bsky.social , @ausmith.bsky.social & Joseph Wu
🌎Global visibility & impact

📅3 November 2025

bit.ly/4h1092r

Special Issue In Vitro Models of Human Disease to Inform Mechanism and Drug Discovery

Edited by Vivian Li, Austin Smith and Joseph Wu

Extended deadline: 3 November 2025

DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 1d

In this Editor's Choice, Maggiore, Zhu @haozhulab.bsky.social and colleagues reveal the high clinical potential of GalNAc-siRNA-based strategies for preventing hepatocellular carcinoma development in high-risk individuals, particularly through targeting ANLN. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

#HCC #cancer

siCdk1 and siAnln decreased tumor burden in the DEN/PB HCC model. (A) Schematic overview of DEN/PB mouse model. At 2 weeks of age, male mice on the C3H strain background were given a single injection of DEN (25 mg/kg) 4 weeks before the start timepoint (-4w). At 6 weeks of age, mice were placed on 0.05% PB drinking water [start timepoint of 0 weeks (0w)]. Mice were injected with siRNA every other week starting at 12 weeks of age (6w), for a total of nine doses (with 5 mg/kg per dose) and sacrificed 1 week after the final dose (23w). (B) Liver weights for DEN/PB mice at 23 weeks after starting PB water, i.e. the final time point. (C) Liver-to-body-weight ratio for DEN/PB mice at the final time point. (D) Representative images of livers from DEN/PB mice at the final time point. (E) Surface tumor numbers were quantified using front and back images of each liver. (F) Representative immunofluorescence images of DEN/PB livers obtained from mice as indicated. Staining was against GS (red) to indicate the degree of WNT activation. Tumors are outlined by yellow dashed lines. One GS+ tumor was seen in the PBS group. Nuclei were stained with DAPI (blue). Scale bars: 800 μm. For panels B, C and E, the P-values with respect to the PBS group are shown above each group.

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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 1d

Aashi Gurijala & co show that combined fragile X syndrome and glycogen storage disease type IX Drosophila genetic disease models demonstrate an essential interaction between dFMRP and dPHKA2 functions. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

#Drosophila

Glycogen storage disease type IX (GSD-IX) and fragile X syndrome (FXS) disease models combine to cause synthetic lethality. (A) Adult survival as a percentage of that expected for the genetic background control (w1118), the GSD-IX disease model (dPHKA2 null), the FXS disease model (dFmr1 null) and the combined double knockout (DKO) model. Scatter plots show the data points from three independent trials with the mean±s.e.m. Significance is quantified using Kruskal–Wallis followed by a Dunn's multiple-comparisons test. *P≤0.05; ns, not significant (P>0.05). (B) Representative images show recently eclosed juvenile adult males of all four genotypes. Rare DKO escapers eclose at a very low frequency, but always die as young juveniles. The flies are shown on their sides, with anterior to the left, posterior to the right, and legs projecting upwards. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.

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Reposted by DMM Journal

Anestis Tsakiridis @tsakiridis.bsky.social · 2d

I am co-organising a @cclguk.bsky.social @dmmjournal.bsky.social symposium on the developmental origins of paediatric cancers at the @crick.ac.uk on 8/6/2026. Great speaker line up, affordable registration and available slots for short talks-spread the word! www.cclg.org.uk/information-...

Developmental origins of paediatric cancer symposium

A one-day event showcasing the latest cutting-edge research on the modelling, biology and treatment of paediatric cancers in the context of their developmental origins.

www.cclg.org.uk

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Reposted by DMM Journal

Daniel V. Oliveira @danielvoliveira.bsky.social · 2d

Grateful to the Company of Biologists and @dmmjournal.bsky.social for awarding me a Travel Grant to attend Notch Meeting XIII, starting today in Athens! 🇬🇷
Excited to share our latest work and connect with the amazing Notch community. #DMMgrants #NotchMeeting2025 #NotchSignaling #Notch #Liverdisease

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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 2d

In this #DMMPerspective, Diane Sepich & co discuss how pre-clinical models of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) are urgently needed to speed etiologic and therapeutic discoveries, even if they do not perfectly recapitulate all aspects of the disease.

doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

#scoliosis

Adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS) is a spine growth disorder caused by interplay (depicted as puzzle pieces) of the effects of genetics, sex hormones and mechanical stress on the spine during rapid growth. Missing pieces represent our current lack of understanding of AIS etiology.

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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 6d

In this Perspective, Nicole Eskow & Eva Hernando review current #cancer metastasis models, highlight advances and gaps, and advocate open data sharing to enhance model selection, experimental rigour and clinical relevance. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

Metastasis is a complex multi-tissue event. For tumor cells to metastasize, they must undergo a highly inefficient and demanding process during which they enter the lymphatic and/or hematogenous vasculature and seed a foreign microenvironment. Tumor cells must, therefore, acquire genetic and epigenetic alterations that enable their ability to survive each step of the metastatic cascade, including immune evasion, shear stress and organ-specific adaptations. Original figure produced by Uta Mackensen.

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DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 7d

Karimjee et al. identify suitable biomarkers for planned preclinical trials using a canine model of #DMD, which carries a spontaneous splice-site mutation resulting in the deletion of exon 50 within dystrophin transcripts, a central hotspot for human DMD mutations. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

DMM Journal @dmmjournal.bsky.social · 8d

Lixin Zhang & co create new in vivo ovarian tumour models. They provide genotypic and phenotypic analyses of 28 novel murine cell lines that express different antigens and recapitulate in vivo ovarian cancer with different histology and inflammatory profiles. doi.org/10.1242/dmm....

#Cancer

Murine ovarian cancer cell line generation protocols. (A) Generation of cell lines using healthy OSE cells isolated from mice with specific genetic traits. Following gentle trypsinization (1), primary OSE cells were cultured in vitro for prolonged periods of time (2), until immortalization was achieved, as detailed in the Materials and Methods. Cells that also underwent transformation were used as transplantable tumor models in syngeneic mice (3). Tumor tissue isolated at necropsy was used to generate tumor-derived cell lines. Cells were further used for in vitro genetic manipulations (4), such as via activation of silent Cre/loxP mutations or gene inactivation via CRISPR/Cas9. These newly derived ovarian cancer cell lines, with modified genetic traits, can also be used for in vivo tumor formation (5) and subsequent isolation of tumor-derived, ‘daughter’ cell lines.

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Reposted by DMM Journal

the Node @the-node.bsky.social · 13d

Featured resource: Facebase

In this post, we learn about the data and functionalities available at Facebase @facebase.bsky.social, and hear about new initiatives they are developing.

thenode.biologists.com/featured-res...

Featured resource: Facebase - the Node

Our ‘Featured resource’ series aims to shine a light on the resources that support our research – the unsung heroes of the science world. In this post, we learn about the data and functionalities avai...

thenode.biologists.com

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