Background: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is linked with metabolic risk factors including body mass index (BMI), fasting blood glucose (FBG), cholesterol levels, and triglycerides (TG). The extent to which these factors affect motor symptoms, depression, and sleep problems in PD, as well as their role in determining the success of deep brain stimulation (DBS) therapy, is yet to be fully understood. Methods: This study delved into the effects of metabolic risk factors like BMI, FBG, cholesterol, and TG on the outcomes of DBS in treating PD-related depression and sleep disturbances across both mouse models and human subjects. Results: DBS showcased noticeable betterment in depression and sleep perturbations in both PD-afflicted mice and patients. High-sugar–high-fat diet aggravates MPTP-induced depression and sleep disorders in mice. PD-afflicted individuals presenting with depressive and sleep disorders demonstrated elevated metrics of BMI, FBG, blood cholesterol, and TG. Remarkably, these metrics bore considerable adverse influences on the efficiency of DBS in ameliorating depression and sleep issues yet spared motor symptoms. The favorable impacts of DBS persisted for ~6 years, after which a significant decline was noted. Importantly, our translational evidence from both murine controls and patient cohorts indicated that antihyperglycemic and antihyperlipidemic therapies bolstered the efficacy of DBS in mitigating PD-related depression and sleep disturbances, without impinging upon motor functions in patients. Conclusion: In summary, this research emphasizes that DBS is a powerful treatment option for depression and sleep issues in PD, with its success influenced by metabolic risk factors. It further suggests that incorporating treatments for high blood sugar and cholesterol can enhance the efficacy of DBS in treating depression and sleep disturbances in PD, without impacting motor symptoms, highlighting the importance of metabolic risk management in PD patients receiving DBS.

Despite the long healing duration of tendon injuries, the outcomes of repairs are frequently suboptimal, resulting in persistent pain and reduced functionality. Current clinical approaches to tendinopathy are primarily symptomatic, encompassing nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), corticosteroid injections, physical therapies, surgical interventions, loading programs, and pain management. Yet, these treatments have protracted timelines and their efficacy remains uncertain. This uncertainty stems largely from an incomplete understanding of tendinopathy's pathogenesis. Unraveling the mechanisms behind tendinopathy is essential for devising novel therapeutic strategies. In this context, this review systematic reviewed more recent cellular and molecular literature in tendinopathy, in order to summarize the up-to-date advancements including the structure and composition of healthy tendons, the pathophysiological changes in tendinopathy, the molecular pathways implicated in various forms of the condition, and current effective treatment methods. This review not only aims to offer insights but also to inspire further investigation into the mechanisms and clinical management of tendinopathy. A deficient understanding of the molecular mechanisms hampers the advancement of therapeutic strategies and drug development. Consequently, an in-depth examination of these molecular mechanisms is essential for comprehending the etiology of tendinopathy and for devising effective clinical management strategies.

In this review, we seek a novel strategy for establishing a rejuvenating microenvironment through senescent cells specific reprogramming. We suggest that partial reprogramming can produce a secretory phenotype that facilitates cellular rejuvenation. This strategy is desired for specific partial reprogramming under control to avoid tumour risk and organ failure due to loss of cellular identity. It also alleviates the chronic inflammatory state associated with ageing and secondary senescence in adjacent cells by improving the senescence-associated secretory phenotype. This manuscript also hopes to explore whether intervening in cellular senescence can improve ageing and promote damage repair, in general, to increase people’s healthy lifespan and reduce frailty. Feasible and safe clinical translational protocols are critical in rejuvenation by controlled reprogramming advances. This review discusses the limitations and controversies of these advances’ application (while organizing the manuscript according to potential clinical translation schemes) to explore directions and hypotheses that have translational value for subsequent research.

We generated and characterized a transgenic mouse line with the tendon-specific expression of a double fluorescent reporter system, which will fulfill an unmet need for animal models to support real-time monitoring cell behaviors during tendon development, growth, and repair in vitro and in vivo. The mScarlet red fluorescent protein is driven by the Scleraxis (Scx) promoter to report the cell lineage alteration. The blue fluorescent protein reporter is expressed under the control of the 3.6kb Collagen Type I Alpha 1 Chain (Col1a1) proximal promoter. In this promoter, the existence of two promoter regions named tendon-specific cis-acting elements (TSE1, TSE2) ensure the specific expression of blue fluorescent protein (BFP) in tendon tissue. Collagen I is a crucial marker for tendon regeneration that is a major component of healthy tendons. Thus, the alteration of function during tendon repair can be estimated by BFP expression. After mechanical stimulation, the expression of mScarlet and BFP increased in adipose-derived mesenchymal stem cells (ADMSCs) from our transgenic mouse line, and there was a rising trend on tendon key markers. These results suggest that our tendon-specific double reporter system is a novel model used to study cell re-differentiation and extracellular matrix alteration in vitro and in vivo.

We generated a novel tetracycline-inducible transgenic mouse line with the tendon-specific expression of a series of tendon-critical transcription factors. Primary tenocytes derived from this mouse line consistently expressed green fluorescent protein reporter transcription factors in response to doxycycline. The tenocytes maintained their tendon cell properties for a longer time after the transient induction in the absence of growth factors and mechanical stress. Four key transcription factors for tendon development and the green fluorescent protein reporter were linked with different viral 2A self-cleaving peptides. They were expressed under the control of the tet-responsive element. In combination with the expression of BFP, which reports on the tendon-specific collagen I, and mScarlet, which reports on the tendon-specific transcription factor Scleraxis (Scx), we observed the more extended maintenance of the tendon cell identity of in vitro cultured tendon cells and Achilles tendon explants. This means that the Scleraxis bHLH transcription factor (Scx), mohawk homeobox (Mkx), early growth response 1 (Egr1) and early growth response 2 (Egr2) contributed to the maintenance of tenocytes’ identity in vitro, providing a new model for studying extracellular matrix alterations and identifying alternative biomaterials in vitro.