GPAT1 Deficiency in Mice Modulates NASH Progression in a Model-Dependent Manner.

Background & Aims: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and its more severe form, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is the leading cause for liver failure and liver cancer. Although the etiology is likely multifactorial, genes involved in regulating lipid metabolism are enriched in human NAFLD genome-wide association studies (GWAS), pointing to dysregulated lipid metabolism as a major pathogenic factor. Glycerol-3-phosphate acyltransferase 1 (GPAT1), encoded by GPAM, converts acyl-CoAs and glycerol-3-phosphate into lysophosphatidic acid and has been shown to regulate lipid accumulation in the liver.

Overview and initial results of the very long baseline interferometry space observatory programme.

High angular resolution images of extragalactic radio sources are being made with the Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy (HALCA) satellite and ground-based radio telescopes as part of the Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) Space Observatory Programme (VSOP). VSOP observations at 1.6 and 5 gigahertz of the milli-arc-second-scale structure of radio quasars enable the quasar core size and the corresponding brightness temperature to be determined, and they enable the motions of jet components that are close to the core to be studied.

The characterization of hereditary abnormalities of keratin: Clouston's ectodermal dysplasia.

Ectodermal dysplasia of the Clouston type is a disease caused by a single dose of an autosomal dominant gene. It appears to involve only the skin and its appendages. An investigation of the physical and chemical abnormalities of the hair protein in this disease is beginning to throw some light on the action of the gene involved.