Here you will find a regularly updated collection of articles published in physiological journals, usually published by physiological societies.
The Physiological Society of Japan
celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023. On this occasion the Journal of Physiology compiled a collection of some of the most influential research published by Japanese authors in this journal. Have a closer look here
The Physiological Society of Japan publishes regularly Science Topics related to a recently published paper.
You will find the “Science Topics” on the main page, scrolling down to “News” and clicking “Science Topics”.
The latest topic relates to an article published by Yoshifumi Takahata, Yuki Kasashima, Takuya Yoshioka et al in PNAS (A Period1 inducer specifically advances circadian clock in mice.)
Significance
The authors reveal that Mic-628 specifically and sufficiently induces Per1, provoking an abrupt phase advance in mouse behavioral rhythms, regardless of the timing of administration. Disruption of tandem E-boxes in the mPer1 promoter abolishes most of both mPer1 induction and phase-advancing activity, highlighting their role as unique binding sites for the CLOCK–BMAL1 complex. Mass spectrometry identified CRY1 as a potential target, with Mic-628 enhancing CRY1 binding to CLOCK-BMAL1, which tightly correlates with Per1 induction. Moreover, the autonomous PER1-mediated feedback repression likely explains the consistent phase-advancing profile. Overall, Mic-628 exerts its distinctive effect through precise molecular interactions that unveil an additional layer of transcriptional control within the circadian clock. This makes Mic-628 a promising therapeutic candidate for circadian disruptions.
APSselect A July 2026 selection from Journals published by the American Physiological Society (APS)
J Applied Physiology: Stephen J. Foulkes et al
NEW & NOTEWORTHY This case study of a highly trained ultra-endurance athlete performing two world-record setting 12 and 24 h cycling bouts provides the most definitive illustration that a sufficiently intense and prolonged dose of exercise (in this case, 24 h of intense cycling) can result in acute heart failure. The absence of persistent myocardial injury highlights the remarkable resilience of the cardiovascular system to acute stress and reinforces the importance of adequate recovery following prolonged and intensive endurance exercise bouts.
AJP Cell Physiology : Jennifer Nogueira-Coelho et al.
Empagliflozin targets a renal neuro-epithelial-immune axis in heart failure
NEW & NOTEWORTHY These findings identify a renal neuro-epithelial-immune axis that may, at least in part, underlie empagliflozin-mediated renoprotection in heart failure. Empagliflozin selectively attenuated surrogate markers of renal sympathetic activity, lowering cortical and urinary norepinephrine without detectable changes in intrarenal renin-angiotensin system components. These changes were accompanied by a shift toward a reparative macrophage phenotype. In vitro, empagliflozin blocked norepinephrine-induced SGLT2 upregulation and IL-6 production, linking sympathetic signaling to tubular inflammation.
AJP Gastrointestial and Liver Physiology : Beng San Yeoh et al.
Elevated Circulating Bile Acids Driven Erythrocyte Osmotic Resistance Marks Hepatobiliary Disease
NEW & NOTEWORTHY Elevated circulating bile acids are associated with increased red blood cell (RBC)
resistance to osmotic hemolysis in mice and humans. This phenotype reflects bile acid-driven
remodeling of RBC membranes and provides a basis for a whole-blood assay to assess cholemia
using small blood volumes.
Much more can be found in this month’s selection of articles from APS journals!
Don’t miss Physiology Shorts, published on the website of The Phyiological Society
This new and engaging video feature from The Journal of Physiology aims to deliver short and informative research snapshots directly from the authors of research papers selected by the Editors of the journal!
The German Physiological Society (DPG) selects regularly a “Paper of the Month“.
DPG’s latest paper of the month (Johanna K Freundt et al) was recently published in Nat Cardiovasc Res
Selective titin cleavage disrupts cardiac mechanical homeostasis to drive heart failure and fibrosis
From the abstract: Titin, the largest human protein, forms the elastic sarcomeric backbone, providing passive stiffness and length-dependent activation in cardiomyocytes. Whereas titin mutations cause inherited cardiomyopathies, ischemic and chemotherapy-induced injury also provoke proteolytic cleavage of titin’s elastic segment. However, the effects of acute titin stiffness loss remain unknown. Here we develop a knock-in mouse enabling in vivo cleavage of cardiac titin springs and use multimodal analysis (cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, echocardiography, microscopy, omics) to show that titin cleavage does not dilate the heart but reduces chamber size and impairs ventricular filling. Mechanical assays of isolated cardiomyocytes reveal diminished restoring forces causing a loss of elastic recoil. In vivo cleavage disrupts junctions, including integrin linkages and connexin 43 gap junctions, widens intermyocyte space without hypertrophy or hyperplasia and drives fibroblast activation, extracellular matrix remodeling and fibrosis. Compensatory mechanisms fail, leading to decompensated heart failure. These findings establish that proteolytic titin cleavage perturbs cardiac mechanical homeostasis, driving disease and matrix stiffening.
Pflügers Archiv (the official Journal of the DPG) : a selection made by Armin Kurtz, the former editor in chief of Pflügers Archiv – Eur J Physiol:
Pflügers Arch – Eur J Physiol. Volume 475, issue 1, January 2023 Special Issue: Body and mind: how somatic feedback signals shape brain activity and cognition.
From Pflügers Archiv we highlight a thematic collection of papers. These are in a Special Issue entitled “Body and mind: how somatic feedback signals shape brain activity and cognition”.
During recent years, body-to-brain signaling is gaining increasing attention. Understanding interactions between the brain and “peripheral” functions (cardiovascular, respiratory, metabolic, hormonal and others) bears great potential for basic neurosciences as well as for pathophysiology and clinical innovations. A major focus of the Special Issue is on respiration as a fundamental rhythm which has astonishing impact on brain function and cognition. However, this example can and should be generalized to a modern understanding of embodiment – after all, the brain is an organ, and as such is embedded into the entire organism and its environment.