Histamine is a ubiquitous inflammatory mediator intimately associated with the pathology of allergy. Traditional antihistamines, targeting the histamine H1 receptor, have failed to demonstrate a significant role for histamine in asthma. Novel immunomodulatory roles for histamine and the discovery...

Radiation therapy (RT) remains the mainstay of treatment for NPC patients without evidence of metastases. The goal of radiation therapy is to cure patients while preserving normal tissue function. Results from randomized clinical trials support the intensification of therapy with chemotherapy in...

Epigenetic regulation refers to the mechanisms that alter gene expression patterns in the absence of changes in the nucleotide sequence of the DNA molecule. The best understood epigenetic marks include posttranslational modifications of the histone tails and DNA methylation. Both play central...

The development of a fatty liver predisposes individuals to an array of health problems including diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain forms of cancer. Inhibition or genetic ablation of genes controlling sphingolipid synthesis in rodents resolves hepatic steatosis and in many cases wards...

Stem cell differentiation requires a complex coordination of events to transition from a self‑renewing to a differentiated cell fate. Stem cells can be pluripotent (capable of giving rise to all embryonic lineages), multipotent (possessing the potential to give rise to multiple lineages) and...

During development, initially totipotent cells of the embryo specialize to form discrete tissue lineages. The first lineages to form in the mouse are the extraembryonic tissues. Meanwhile, cells that do not become extraembryonic retain a pluripotent fate since they can give rise to all the germ...