Credit: Image by IVPP [Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeonthropology]
The inner ear of a 400 million-year-old platypus fish has yielded new insights into early vertebrate evolution, suggesting this ancient creature may be more closely related to modern-day sharks and bony fish than previously thought.
A team of scientists from the University of Birmingham in the UK, and institutions in China, Australia and Sweden, used virtual anatomy techniques, including MicroCT scanning (using x-rays to look inside the fossil) and digital reconstruction to examine previously unseen areas within the braincase of these mysterious fossils.
They discovered the fish, called Brindabellaspis stensioi and nicknamed platypus fish because of its long beak, has an inner ear which is surprisingly compact in construction. Its closely connected components resemble the inner ears of modern jawed vertebrates such as sharks and bony fishes. Some features of it also appear very similar to a h
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Myeloid immune cells in blood tied to severe COVID-19
Individual variations in how the immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2 appear to impact the severity of disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now been able to show that patients with severe COVID-19 have significantly elevated levels of a certain type of immune cells in their blood, called myeloid-derived suppressor cells. The study published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation may bring an increased understanding of how early immune responses impact disease severity.
Anna Smed Sörensen. Photo: Ulf Sirborn.
Most individuals with COVID-19 develop mild to moderate symptoms and recover without needing hospital treatment. In severe cases, however, COVID-19 can lead to respiratory failure or even death. It is not yet known why the severity of disease varies so much between patients.
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Credit: Ulf Sirborn
Individual variations in how the immune system responds to SARS-CoV-2 appear to impact the severity of disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now been able to show that patients with severe COVID-19 have significantly elevated levels of a certain type of immune cells in their blood, called myeloid-derived suppressor cells. The study published in the
Journal of Clinical Investigation may bring an increased understanding of how early immune responses impact disease severity.
Most individuals with COVID-19 develop mild to moderate symptoms and recover without needing hospital treatment. In severe cases, however, COVID-19 can lead to respiratory failure or even death. It is not yet known why the severity of disease varies so much between patients.
Credit: Thor Balkhed/Linköping University
Special immune cells found in the brain, microglia, play a key role in the processes that make you feel uneasy and depressed in correlation with inflammation. This is the conclusion of a study using mice carried out by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. The results have been published in the scientific journal
Immunity, and suggest that microglial cells contribute to the negative mood experienced during several neurological diseases, and maybe also depression.
David Engblom s research group at Linköping University has spent many years looking at why inflammation in the body, such as a common cold or influenza, causes us to feel poorly and despondent, and why we feel like retiring into our shell. The activity of the immune system influences nerve cells in some way. However, normal cells of the immune system are not able to get into the brain: it is sensitive and must be protected. Instead, the brain has its own special immune
The cause of the inflammatory lung disease sarcoidosis is unknown. In a new study, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have investigated whether a type.