Inflammation News and Research

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Pig kidney xenotransplantation offers a bridge for patients awaiting human donor kidneys

In January 2026, Tim Andrews, who had received a genetically edited pig kidney in January 2025, became the recipient of a human kidney.

3 Sep 2026

The obesity-microbiome story is more complicated than ‘good’ and ‘bad’ bacteria

This review finds that obesity is linked to reciprocal interactions between diet, the gut microbiome, microbial metabolites, and host metabolic pathways that influence appetite, insulin sensitivity, inflammation, and energy balance across the lifespan. It highlights diet as a particularly tractable way to influence this system, while emphasizing that microbiome changes associated with GLP-1 therapies remain difficult to separate from weight loss and that functional multi-omics approaches may help enable more personalized interventions.

3 Sep 2026

Semaglutide extended lifespan in older female mice, but that was not the only finding

Late-life semaglutide treatment slowed age-related physiological decline, attenuated multiple molecular hallmarks of aging, and extended median lifespan from 742 to 834 days in aged female mice. The drug reproduced many effects of calorie restriction while providing additional benefits in exploratory behavior, spatial memory, and glucose control, suggesting that some effects extend beyond reduced calorie intake alone.

3 Sep 2026

Eight-year study reveals how molecular aging scripts differ individually

Aging does not appear to follow the same molecular script for everyone, according to an eight-year study of 335 women.

3 Sep 2026

Alpha-1 antitrypsin identified as potential target for preventing spontaneous preterm birth

Researchers at the University of Oulu have identified alpha-1 antitrypsin as a potential target for preventing spontaneous preterm birth.

3 Sep 2026

Maternal illness may reshape fetal brain development through epigenetics

Neurodevelopmental conditions, which include autism spectrum disorders, ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder), and more, impact around ten percent of the American population.

2 Sep 2026

Menopause may start changing the gut years before periods stop

A longitudinal study of 964 women found that blood markers of gut epithelial barrier dysfunction and microbial product translocation began to rise around 2 to 2.5 years before the final menstrual period and remained elevated after menopause. The findings suggest that changes in gut barrier integrity may form part of the biological transition through menopause and could help explain links between menopause, inflammation, and later health outcomes.

2 Sep 2026

Scientists develop lab-grown heart tissue model for heart failure

Scientists study the underlying causes of a disease or test new potential drugs in animal models or cells obtained from human biopsy specimens before clinical trials.

2 Sep 2026

Semaglutide extends lifespan and slows physiological aging in healthy mice

A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study has shown that the GLP-1 drug semaglutide extended lifespan in older, healthy mice by tempering the detrimental effects of aging.

2 Sep 2026

Harvard scientists discover entirely new gene regulation system in mammals

For decades, scientists have understood that each of the roughly 20,000 genes in the human body carries the instructions for a single kind of protein.

2 Sep 2026

Giving immunotherapy before surgery boosts brain tumor treatment success

A team from UNIGE and HUG has shown that administering cell immunotherapy before surgery to remove a brain tumor is significantly more effective than administering it afterwards.

2 Sep 2026

Cellular atlas offers clues to childhood Crohn’s treatment response

Researchers have created a detailed map of childhood Crohn's disease before and after treatment to help understand progression of the disease.

1 Sep 2026

NIH grant funds research on environmental triggers for sickle cell disease

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has received a $4.1 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study how everyday exposures affect the health of people with sickle cell disease.

1 Sep 2026

Study links protein interaction to senescent cell survival

Senescent cells - cells that have stopped dividing but remain metabolically active - can accumulate with age and contribute to chronic inflammation and tissue dysfunction

1 Sep 2026

New nondestructive imaging technique tracks immune cell health

When a patient is facing certain cancers or an immune condition, clinicians turn to their white blood cells for clues about the progression of both diseases and their treatments.

1 Sep 2026

Blocking a key protein protects against metabolic liver damage

Obesity-related metabolic liver disease affects hundreds of millions of people worldwide, but only some fraction of those livers develop scarring, become inflamed, and eventually fail. University of Utah researchers have identified a protein, EFHD1, that appears to drive that transition by triggering an out-of-place antiviral immune response.

1 Sep 2026

Antifungal medication may reduce inflammatory bowel disease symptoms

A commonly used systemic antifungal medication may help reduce symptoms in a subset of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) by restoring a healthier gut microbiome, according to a preliminary study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators.

1 Sep 2026

Multiple sclerosis treatment approach developed at Mainz University moves toward clinical application

A therapeutic approach pioneered in Mainz for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS) is taking an important step toward clinical application.

1 Sep 2026

Breastmilk from cannabis users showed differences, but cannabis may not be the whole story

A narrative review found that maternal cannabis use may be associated with differences in breastmilk fat, protein, lactose, and the immune factor secretory immunoglobulin A, but evidence comes primarily from only two human studies and remains limited and inconsistent. The authors stress that maternal diet, food security, socioeconomic circumstances, and other forms of adversity could confound these associations and should be incorporated into future research.

31 Aug 2026