Biofabrication of 3D tumor models in cancer research

Abstract Tumors are complex tissues in which cancer cells are interwoven with fibroblasts, endothelial cells, pericytes, and inflammatory cells; these cells and the extracellular matrix constitute the tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME can modulate the behavior of tumor cells in terms of capacity to invade neighboring or distant tissues and drug resistance, by secreting tumor-promoting growth factors and cytokines. The poor efficacy of many anticancer drugs in clinical trials can be partly justified by the lack of predictive preclinical models. Prior to in vivo testing, biofabrication of tools for investigation in three-dimensional (3D) could be useful. Indeed, cells grown in 3D matrices…

Surface hydrographic changes at the western flank of the sicily channel associated with the last sapropel

Abstract In the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the early Holocene was characterized by major climatic and oceanographic changes that led to the formation of the last sapropel (S1) between 10.8 and 6.1 kyr cal. BP. These hydrographic changes might have altered the water exchange between the eastern and western Mediterranean sub-basins through the Strait of Sicily, but the existing evidences are inconclusive. In the present study we show new evidence from sediment core NDT-6-2016 located at the western flank of the Sicily channel, a key location to monitor the surface/intermediate water exchange between the two Mediterranean sub-basins. We perform paleo-hydrographic reconstructions based on plank…

Deep Oceanographic Changes in the South Tyrrhenian Sea during the Time of Last Mediterranean Sapropel Formation