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PII superfamily consists of signal transduction proteins found in all domains of life. PII-like proteins evolved to fulfill diverse, yet poorly understood cellular functions. We recently identified the PII-like protein SbtB in cyanobacteria as a sensor of various adenine nucleotides including the second messengers cAMP and c-di-AMP. This highlights SbtB as a central switch-point in cyanobacterial physiology, integrating not only signals from the energy state and carbon supply, but also signals from the day/night status, to regulate the glycogen metabolism.

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the most lethal gynecological cancers worldwide. EOC cells educate tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) through CD44-mediated cholesterol depletion to generate an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME). In addition, tumor cells frequently activate Notch1 receptors on endothelial cells (EC) to facilitate metastasis. However, further work is required to establish whether the endothelium also influences the education of recruited monocytes. Here, we report that canonical Notch signaling through RBPJ in ECs is an important player in the education of TAMs and EOC progression. Deletion of Rbpj in the endothelium of adult mice reduced infiltration of monocyte-derived macrophages into the TME of EOC and prevented the acquisition of a typical TAM gene signature; this was associated with stronger cytotoxic activity of T cells and decreased tumor burden. Mechanistically, CXCL2 was identified as a novel Notch/RBPJ target gene that regulated the expression of CD44 on monocytes and subsequent cholesterol depletion of TAMs. Bioinformatic analysis of ovarian cancer patient data showed that increased CXCL2 expression is accompanied by higher expression of CD44 and TAM education. Together, these findings indicate that EOC cells induce the tumor endothelium to secrete CXCL2 in order to establish an immunosuppressive microenvironment.

One of the challenges compounding the complexity of reoperative cardiac surgery are the surgical adhesions, which can be responsible for adverse intraoperative events. In such situations implantation of a substitute neo-pericardium has become a frequently used solution for avoiding injuries to the heart and great vessels, with rising numbers of reoperations. The pericardium can be reconstructed using biological (heterologous or autologous) or synthetic material, each having their pros and cons. In this report we present a case of relapsing constrictive pericarditis after implantation of expanded polytetrafluoroethylene neo-pericardium (GORE®). A highly differentiated algorithm and a careful preoperative review of indication is recommended in order to plan the optimal method of pericardioplasty, taking into account the pros and cons of each available material.

Aluminium sheets of high purity were produced by accumulative roll bonding (ARB) at room temperature. The microstructure of the sheets up to 16 ARB cycles was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy. In all sheets discontinuous dynamic recrystallization occurred leading to coarse grains. In general, the grain size decreases with increasing number of applied ARB cycles, but remains much larger than the theoretical layer thickness after 6 or more ARB cycles. It is shown for the first time, how the interfaces introduced by ARB have a significant effect on the elongated grain shape by a combined experimental-numerical-study: The resulting microstructure is qualitatively discussed with regard to defects introduced at the interfaces by the ARB process, while two-dimensional Potts model simulations yield very good qualitative agreements with the experiments and underpin the importance of the ARB interfaces as barriers for the motion of grain boundaries.