Dynamic mechanical analysis of alginate/gellan hydrogels under controlled conditions relevant to environmentally sensitive applications.

Hydrogels are natural/synthetic polymer-based materials with a large percentage of water content, usually above 80 %, and are suitable for many application fields such as wearable sensors, biomedicine, cosmetics, agriculture, etc. However, their performance is susceptible to environmental changes in temperature, relative humidity, and mechanical deformation due to their aqueous and soft nature. We investigate the mechanical response of both filled and unfilled alginate/gellan hydrogels using a combined axial-torsional rheometric approach with cylindrical samples of large length/diameter ratio under controlled temperature and relative humidity.

Linking tumor immune infiltration to enhanced longevity in recurrence-free breast cancer.

Background: The infiltration of tumor-infiltrating B cells and plasma cells in early-stage breast cancer has been associated with a reduced risk of distant metastasis. However, the influence of B-cell tumor infiltration on overall patient survival remains unclear.

Materials And Methods: This study explored the relationship between an antitumor immune response, measured by a 14-gene B-cell/immunoglobulin (IGG) signature, and mortality risk in 9638 breast cancer patients across three datasets.

Multimodal Spatial Profiling Reveals Immune Suppression and Microenvironment Remodeling in Fallopian Tube Precursors to High-Grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma.

High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC) originates from fallopian tube (FT) precursors. However, the molecular changes that occur as precancerous lesions progress to HGSOC are not well understood. To address this, we integrated high-plex imaging and spatial transcriptomics to analyze human tissue samples at different stages of HGSOC development, including p53 signatures, serous tubal intraepithelial carcinomas (STIC), and invasive HGSOC.

An estrogen receptor signaling transcriptional program linked to immune evasion in human hormone receptor-positive breast cancer.

Unlabelled: T cells are generally sparse in hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer, potentially due to limited antigen presentation, but the driving mechanisms of low T cell abundance remains unclear. Therefore, we defined and investigated programs ('gene modules'), related to estrogen receptor signaling (ERS) and immune signaling using bulk and single-cell transcriptome and multiplexed immunofluorescence of breast cancer tissues from multiple clinical sources and human cell lines. The ERS gene module, dominantly expressed in cancer cells, was negatively associated with immune-related gene modules TNFα/NF-κB signaling and type-I interferon (IFN-I) response, which were expressed in distinct stromal and immune cell types, but also, in part, expressed and preserved as a cancer cell-intrinsic mechanisms.

Stemness in solid malignancies: coping with immune attack.

Immunotherapy has become a key new pillar of cancer treatment, and this has sparked interest in understanding mechanisms of cancer immune evasion. It has long been appreciated that cancers are constituted by heterogeneous populations of tumour cells. This feature is often fuelled by specialized cells that have molecular programs resembling tissue stem cells.