Single-Crystalline Optical Microcavities from Luminescent Dendrimers.

Microcrystallites are promising minute mirrorless laser sources. A variety of luminescent organic compounds have been exploited along this line, but dendrimers have been inapplicable owing to their fragility and extremely poor crystallinity. Now, a dendrimer family that overcomes these difficulties is presented.

Downregulation of AKT3 Increases Migration and Metastasis in Triple Negative Breast Cancer Cells by Upregulating S100A4.

Background: Treatment of breast cancer patients with distant metastases represents one of the biggest challenges in today's gynecological oncology. Therefore, a better understanding of mechanisms promoting the development of metastases is of paramount importance. The serine/threonine kinase AKT was shown to drive cancer progression and metastasis.

Vertical Targeting of AKT and mTOR as Well as Dual Targeting of AKT and MEK Signaling Is Synergistic in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer, and the third most common cause of cancer related death worldwide. The multi-kinase inhibitor Sorafenib represents the only systemic treatment option until today, and results from clinical trials with allosteric mTOR inhibitors were sobering. Since the PI3K/AKT/mTOR and RAF/MEK/ERK signaling pathways are frequently upregulated in HCC, we have analyzed the effects of AKT inhibitor MK-2206, MEK inhibitor AZD6244 (ARRY 142886) and mTOR kinase inhibitor AZD8055, given as single drugs or in combination, on proliferation and apoptosis of three HCC cell lines in vitro.

Discontinuing MEK inhibitors in tumor cells with an acquired resistance increases migration and invasion.

Background: Development of small molecular inhibitors against BRAF and MEK has been a breakthrough in the treatment of malignant melanoma. However, the long-term effect is foiled in virtually all patients by the emergence of resistant tumor cell populations. Therefore, mechanisms resulting in the acquired resistance against BRAF and MEK inhibitors have gained much attention and several strategies have been proposed to overcome tumor resistance, including interval treatment or withdrawal of these compounds after disease progression.

The EMT-activator ZEB1 promotes tumorigenicity by repressing stemness-inhibiting microRNAs.

Invasion and metastasis of carcinomas is promoted by the activation of the embryonic 'epithelial to mesenchymal transition' (EMT) program, which triggers cellular mobility and subsequent dissemination of tumour cells. We recently showed that the EMT-activator ZEB1 (zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1) is a crucial promoter of metastasis and demonstrated that ZEB1 inhibits expression of the microRNA-200 (miR-200) family, whose members are strong inducers of epithelial differentiation. Here, we report that ZEB1 not only promotes tumour cell dissemination, but is also necessary for the tumour-initiating capacity of pancreatic and colorectal cancer cells.

[Biocompatibility testing of different sterilised or disinfected allogenous bone grafts in comparison to the gold standard of autologous bone grafts--an "in vitro" analysis of immunomodulation].

Introduction: Repair of large skeletal defects using bone allografts has become a routine procedure in orthopaedic and trauma surgery. Different procedures of sterilisation (82.5 degrees C disinfection; 121 degrees C autoclaving; PES; Tutoplast; 25 kGy gamma irradiation) are available to inactivate bacteria and fungi, including their spores, as well as viruses in human bone allografts.