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11 February 2026 Clearing trapped cholesterol could relieve lymphoedema Impaired lymphatic function causes cholesterol to accumulate in tissues, driving swelling known as lymphoedema. Lipid clearance could be an effective therapeutic strategy. By Babak Mehrara 0 Babak Mehrara Babak Mehrara is in the Department of Surgery, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York 10065, USA, and Weill Cornell Medicine, Cornell University, New York, New York, USA. View author publications PubMed Google Scholar
Lymphoedema is a chronic and debilitating disease that is characterized by tissue swelling, inflammation, fat accumulation and the formation of scar-like tissue (fibrosis) — yet scientists and clinicians do not completely understand its underlying drivers. Writing in Nature, Lim et al.1 identify an unexpected contributor to disease progression: impaired clearance of cholesterol from the body’s peripheral tissues. By integrating analyses of human lymphoedema samples with mechanistic studies in mouse models, the authors reveal excessive tissue cholesterol as a central feature of the most common type of lymphoedema and demonstrate that promoting cholesterol removal can alleviate disease symptoms.
doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00176-w
References Lim, H. Y. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-10016-y (2026). Randolph, G. J. & Miller, N. E. J. Clin. Investig. 124, 929–935 (2014). Martel, C. et al. J. Clin. Investig. 123, 1571–1579 (2013). Download references
Competing Interests The author declares no competing interests.
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