Loneliness, or perceived social isolation, is a leading predictor of all-cause mortality and is increasingly considered a public health epidemic afflicting significant portions of the general population. Chronic loneliness is itself associated with two of the most pressing public health epidemics currently facing the globe: the rise of mental illness and metabolic health disorders. Here, we highlight the epidemiological associations between loneliness and mental and metabolic health disorders and argue that loneliness contributes to the etiology of these conditions by acting as a chronic stressor that leads to neuroendocrine dysregulation and downstream immunometabolic consequences that manifest in disease. Specifically, we describe how loneliness can lead to overactivation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and ultimately cause mitochondrial dysfunction, which is implicated in mental and metabolic disease. These conditions can, in turn, lead to further social isolation and propel a vicious cycle of chronic illness. Finally, we outline interventions and policy recommendations that can reduce loneliness at both the individual and community levels. Given its role in the etiology of the most prevalent chronic diseases of our time, focusing resources on alleviating loneliness is a vitally important and cost-effective public health strategy.
Serial section microscopy has proven to be a powerful tool in examining the 3-dimensional (3D) nature of tissue; however, it is limited by the size of tissue samples that can be used and the manual process of acquiring data. The knife-edge scanning microscope (KESM) acquisition and analysis computational system resolves these issues by providing high-resolution light microscopy image data at multi-cubic centimeter scale. Using this system for quantification of microvasculature provides the ability to examine, measure, and compare the 3D nature of vascular networks at whole organ scale and sub-micron resolution.
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