[The knowledge of medical law among medical students and medical service providers in Switzerland].

Legal aspects play an increasingly big role in everyday medical practice. This can lead to uncertainties when dealing with medicolegal issues, which could negatively impact the healthcare system and its involved parties. In this study, the medicolegal knowledge of medical students and physicians in Switzerland was examined to give recommendations for undergraduate, postgraduate and further education.

Svep1 stabilises developmental vascular anastomosis in reduced flow conditions.

Molecular mechanisms controlling the formation, stabilisation and maintenance of blood vessel connections remain poorly defined. Here, we identify blood flow and the large extracellular protein Svep1 as co-modulators of vessel anastomosis during developmental angiogenesis in zebrafish embryos. Both loss of Svep1 and blood flow reduction contribute to defective anastomosis of intersegmental vessels.

WASp controls oriented migration of endothelial cells to achieve functional vascular patterning.

Endothelial cell migration and proliferation are essential for the establishment of a hierarchical organization of blood vessels and optimal distribution of blood. However, how these cellular processes are quantitatively coordinated to drive vascular network morphogenesis remains unknown. Here, using the zebrafish vasculature as a model system, we demonstrate that the balanced distribution of endothelial cells, as well as the resulting regularity of vessel calibre, is a result of cell migration from veins towards arteries and cell proliferation in veins.

Vasohibin 1 selectively regulates secondary sprouting and lymphangiogenesis in the zebrafish trunk.

Previous studies have shown that Vasohibin 1 (Vash1) is stimulated by VEGFs in endothelial cells and that its overexpression interferes with angiogenesis Recently, Vash1 was found to mediate tubulin detyrosination, a post-translational modification that is implicated in many cell functions, such as cell division. Here, we used the zebrafish embryo to investigate the cellular and subcellular mechanisms of Vash1 on endothelial microtubules during formation of the trunk vasculature. We show that microtubules within venous-derived secondary sprouts are strongly and selectively detyrosinated in comparison with other endothelial cells, and that this difference is lost upon knockdown.

Intron with transgenic marker (InTraM) facilitates high-throughput screening of endogenous gene reporter lines.

The generation and maintenance of genome edited zebrafish lines is typically labor intensive due to the lack of an easy visual read-out for the modification. To facilitate this process, we have developed a novel method that relies on the inclusion of an artificial intron with a transgenic marker (InTraM) within the knock-in sequence of interest, which upon splicing produces a transcript with a precise and seamless modification. We have demonstrated this technology by replacing the stop codon of the zebrafish fli1a gene with a transcriptional activator KALTA4, using an InTraM that enables red fluorescent protein expression in the heart.

Artery-vein specification in the zebrafish trunk is pre-patterned by heterogeneous Notch activity and balanced by flow-mediated fine-tuning.

How developing vascular networks acquire the right balance of arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels to efficiently supply and drain tissues is poorly understood. In zebrafish embryos, the robust and regular 50:50 global balance of intersegmental veins and arteries that form along the trunk prompts the intriguing question of how does the organism keep 'count'? Previous studies have suggested that the ultimate fate of an intersegmental vessel (ISV) is determined by the identity of the approaching secondary sprout emerging from the posterior cardinal vein. Here, we show that the formation of a balanced trunk vasculature involves an early heterogeneity in endothelial cell behaviour and Notch signalling activity in the seemingly identical primary ISVs that is independent of secondary sprouting and flow.