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The most highly expressed cellular senescence protein in these placentas was activin A, and higher levels of this protein were linked to either more severe heart dysfunction or heart failure in women with preeclampsia or PPCM.

Treatment with an antibody directed against the receptor for activin A, after pregnancy, had similar effects in these animals.

Dr Nakanoh customised culture conditions for hPSCs and found that the supplements Activin A, BMP4, a GSK3-beta inhibitor, and a MEK inhibitor promoted their differentiation into amniotic ectoderm.

Ditte S. Andersen continues: "We have identified activins as critical regulators of this process. In nutrient restrictive conditions, activin signaling is strongly repressed, while it is reactivated and required for progenitor maturation and gut resizing in response to refeeding. Activin-dependent resizing of the gut is physiologically important as inhibition of activin signaling reduces survival of flies to intermittent fasting."

Indeed, mutations affecting activin signaling are frequent in cancer cells in a variety of tissues.