Displaced minds: ecologies of depression

This issue of the Biomedical Journal explores emerging perspectives across neuropsychiatry, metabolism, aging, regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence, and chronic inflammatory disease. Featured contributions examine epigenetic and neuroendocrine mechanisms in depression, including the antidepressant-like effects of magnolol in chronic stress-induced models and the potential relevance of short-chain fatty acids as biomarkers and therapeutic targets in major depressive disorder. Additional reviews address evolutionary and metabolic dimensions of liver disease, artificial intelligence-assisted imaging approaches in lymphedema, immunological senotherapeutic strategies, developmental origins of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, and the risks associated with short-term corticosteroid exposure. Original investigations further examine dopaminergic signaling during acute deprivation, molecular mechanisms of axonal regeneration, lipid peroxidation in pulmonary fibrosis, hypothalamic NPFFR2 signaling in metabolic dysfunction, neurobehavioral consequences of occlusal disharmony, and fall risk following cataract surgery with blue-light-filtering intraocular lenses. A correspondence exchange additionally discusses the diagnostic scope and limitations of elastase pretreatment in ALK fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis for non-small cell lung cancer.