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The composition of extracellular vesicles (EVs) is altered in many pathological conditions, and their molecular content provides essential information on features of parent cells and mechanisms of crosstalk between cells and organs. Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) is a cluster of clinical manifestations including obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia and hypertension that increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes mellitus. Here, we investigated the crosstalk between liver and adipocytes by characterizing EVs secreted by primary hepatocytes isolated from Zucker rat model, and studied the effect they have on 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. We found that steatotic hepatocytes secrete EVs with significantly reduced exosomal markers in comparison with their lean counterpart. Moreover, proteomic analysis revealed that those EVs reflect the metabolic state of the parent cell in that the majority of proteins upregulated relate to fat metabolism, fatty acid synthesis, glycolysis, and pentose phosphate pathway. In addition, hepatocytes‐secreted EVs influenced lipolysis and insulin sensitivity in recipient 3T3‐L1 adipocytes. Untargeted metabolomic analysis detected alterations in different adipocyte metabolic pathways in cells treated with hepatic EVs. In summary, our work showed that steatosis has a significant impact in the amount and composition of EVs secreted by hepatocytes. Moreover, our data point to the involvement of hepatic‐EVs in the development of pathologies associated with MetS.

Metastasis to breast from extra-mammary sites is much less common as compared to primary ones and only few cases are reported in the literature. Furthermore, very little is known about prognosis and treatment of patients with solid neoplasms metastatic to the breast. If a breast lump is found, it is recommended to perform a bilateral mammogram specially when there is a rapidly enlargement. Here, we describe a case of a young woman with synchronic breast metastasis from asymptomatic, widely spread, renal cell carcinoma, Furhman grade 4. RCC is one of the most aggressive urologic tumors and rarely metastasizes to the breast. This phenomenon takes place in less than 3% of all metastatic renal cell carcinoma and the appearance as first sign of renal disease is exceptional. This case illustrates the importance of histopathological investigation in a breast mass and the potential for rare sites of metastasis in order to prevent unnecessary radical procedures. Also, this report contributes to importance of a proper diagnosis when rare sites of metastatic deposit, like breast, are detected, especially if there is no previous history of neoplasm.

Introduction: Mouse mesoangioblasts are vessel-associated multipotent progenitor stem cells, which are able to differentiate into different mesodermal cell types. In our previous paper, we have demonstrated that mesoangioblasts are able to shed in the extracellular environment membrane vesicles (EVs), which contain both structural proteins and biological factors such as FGF2 and the two gelatinases MMP2/9. We investigated whether these EV interact in a paracrine way with other cell types different from mesoangioblasts, and eventually the effects of this interaction. Methods: Mesoangioblast EVs were collected from conditioned media by ultracentrifugation. Total mRNAs from mesoangioblasts and from two preparations of EVs were used to perform microarray. Different concentrations of mesoangioblast EV were used to evaluate in vitro migration modulation on human ECV304 cells by wound healing assay or study their influence on capillary-like structures formation. Murine RAW 264.7 macrophages were cultured with or without mesoangioblast-derived EVs to investigate their effect on cytokines secretion profile and RTK phosphorylation levels by array. Results: We observed that mesoangioblast EV contained a huge amount of mRNA; most of the transcripts are co-expressed in EV and cells, whereas 20 mRNA were accumulated within EV and absent in the cells. Gene ontology analysis showed that the common mRNA could be involved in cell survival and differentiation. We demonstrated that mesoangioblast EV interact with endothelial ECV304 cells by positively influencing their migration capability. Moreover, they induce in vitro the ECV304 differentiation versus capillary-like structures depending on their concentration. Mesoangioblast EVs are also able to interact with RAW 264.7 cells inducing dramatic changes in cytokines secretion and in RTK phosphorylation levels. Conclusions: We demonstrated that mesoangioblast EV interact with endothelial cells and macrophages and influence on their behaviour.

Context: The evaluation of the liver condition, based on serum enzymatic activity and biopsies, is insufficient. Therefore, it is a priority to find a correlation between circulating RNAs and liver damage.Methods: Publications were retrieved by the search terms “circulating RNA AND liver”.Results: Although differences exist between studies, a profile of RNAs that repeatedly appeared as indicators of liver damage was identified.Discussion: We highlight those circulating RNAs useful to diagnostic, and discuss the transport mechanisms.Conclusion: Several studies have proven that circulating RNAs are useful to establish a diagnostic and a prognosis of liver diseases.

Optical carrier reduction via the use of a Si3N4 ring resonator notch filter (RRNF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a means for improving the modulation efficiency in 10-GHz radio-over-fiber (RoF) links. The realized filter is characterized in both the optical and microwave domains and is then exploited in an RoF test bed. Experimental results show a modulation depth improvement of up to 9 dB. © 2009-2012 IEEE., This work was supported by the NANOCAP project A-1084-RT-GC that is coordinated by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and funded by 11 contributing Members (Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Sloveni, and Spain) in the framework of the Joint Investment Program on Innovative Concepts and Emerging Technologies (JIP-ICET). Corresponding author: A. Perentos (e-mail: perentos@ucy.ac.cy).