Phytosterol accumulation results in ventricular arrhythmia, impaired cardiac function and death in mice.

Heart failure (HF) and cardiac arrhythmias share overlapping pathological mechanisms that act cooperatively to accelerate disease pathogenesis. Cardiac fibrosis is associated with both pathological conditions. Our previous work identified a link between phytosterol accumulation and cardiac injury in a mouse model of phytosterolemia, a rare disorder characterized by elevated circulating phytosterols and increased cardiovascular disease risk.

Implementation and assessment of a pilot, community pharmacy-based, opioid pain medication management program.

Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate care gaps in risk- and harm-reduction strategies for patients prescribed opioids and to describe the implementation of a community pharmacy-based, pilot pain-management program.

Setting: The pilot program was established in a community pharmacy within an academic medical center. Patients enrolled were prescribed opioids for chronic pain by a rheumatology clinic.

Meta-Analysis Reveals Reproducible Gut Microbiome Alterations in Response to a High-Fat Diet.

Multiple research groups have shown that diet impacts the gut microbiome; however, variability in experimental design and quantitative assessment have made it challenging to assess the degree to which similar diets have reproducible effects across studies. Through an unbiased subject-level meta-analysis framework, we re-analyzed 27 dietary studies including 1,101 samples from rodents and humans. We demonstrate that a high-fat diet (HFD) reproducibly changes gut microbial community structure.