Academic readiness among young children treated for brain tumors: a multisite, prospective, longitudinal trial.

Background: Young children treated for central nervous system (CNS) malignancies are at high risk for difficulties with academic functioning due to increased vulnerability of the developing brain and missed early developmental opportunities. Extant literature examining academics in this population is limited. We investigated academic readiness, its clinical and demographic predictors, and its relationship with distal academic outcomes among patients treated for CNS tumors during early childhood.

Choline-deficient, high-fat diet-induced MASH in Göttingen Minipigs: characterization and effects of a chow reversal period.

The prevalence of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) is increasing, and translational animal models are needed to develop novel treatments for this disease. The physiology and metabolism of pigs have a relatively high resemblance to humans, and the present study aimed to characterize choline-deficient and high-fat diet (CDAHFD)-fed Göttingen Minipigs as a novel animal model of MASLD/MASH. Göttingen Minipigs were fed CDAHFD for up to 5 mo, and the phenotype was investigated by the analysis of plasma parameters and repeated collection of liver biopsies.

Interneuron diversity in the human dorsal striatum.

Deciphering the striatal interneuron diversity is key to understanding the basal ganglia circuit and to untangling the complex neurological and psychiatric diseases affecting this brain structure. We performed snRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics of postmortem human caudate nucleus and putamen samples to elucidate the diversity and abundance of interneuron populations and their inherent transcriptional structure in the human dorsal striatum. We propose a comprehensive taxonomy of striatal interneurons with eight main classes and fourteen subclasses, providing their full transcriptomic identity and spatial expression profile as well as additional quantitative FISH validation for specific populations.

An unbiased ranking of murine dietary models based on their proximity to human metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD).

Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD), previously known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, encompasses steatosis and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), leading to cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Preclinical MASLD research is mainly performed in rodents; however, the model that best recapitulates human disease is yet to be defined. We conducted a wide-ranging retrospective review (metabolic phenotype, liver histopathology, transcriptome benchmarked against humans) of murine models (mostly male) and ranked them using an unbiased MASLD 'human proximity score' to define their metabolic relevance and ability to induce MASH-fibrosis.