In: Analele Universității București: Annals of the University of Bucharest = Les Annales de l'Université de Bucarest. Științe politice = Political science series = Série Sciences politiques, Band 14, Heft 2, S. 63-73
This article aims to present the situation of the foreign students in general – and of Romanian students in particular – studying at German institutions of higher education during the Third Reich. Beyond its quantitative considerations, which prove how intense was the migration of Romanian students to Nazi Germany the article highlights the political role assigned to the Romanian students by the Nazi authorities, as well as the political and ideological impact that the study in the Nazi universities had on the Romanian youth.
Foreign students and researchers in Germany became, after 1933, a tool of Nazi propaganda. Those receiving financial support from the Germans, such as the recipients of the Humboldt fellowships, were further compromised. This article aims to shed light on the role played by Humboldt fellowships in the political and ideological transfer between Nazi Germany and Romania. It aims to re-create the profile of the fellows and the influence of the fellowship on the Romanian fellows' political and ideological development, in order to establish how they functioned as Nazi propaganda tools. Throughout the 1930s, the number of young Romanians going to study and carry out research in Nazi Germany increased considerably, while the financial support they received from the Germans became more significant—including a larger number of Humboldt fellowships. This shows not only that Nazi Germany had a special interest in developing its relations with Romania but also that Romania was embarked on a path of far-right radicalization, with students and youth becoming sympathizers of Nazi Germany and sometimes members of the Iron Guard. The Romanian Humboldt fellows were politically instrumentalized by the Third Reich: they were engaged in far-right political activism, were influenced in their professions and writings by the Nazi ideology, and sometimes they even went on to occupy various positions in the Romanian bureaucratic or diplomatic apparatus.
At the end of World War I, Germany was neither politically, nor culturally "attendable", for most of the European countries. In this context, one of the main cultural aims of the Weimar Republic will be the resumption of the cultural and academic relations with other countries. The foreign students were invested with a major role in this respect. The Weimar Republic has taken institutional and financial steps in order to intensify the student migration and to repopulate its universities with foreign students, measures that have paid off in the mid 20s. In 1925, the percentage of foreign students in Germany reached again the pre-war level. The groups of foreign students best represented in the German universities were the Romanians, the Bulgarians and the Polish. The paper also takes a look at the evolution of the foreign students in Germany during 1918-1933, focusing on their country of origin, the preferred institutions of higher education and fields of study, as well as on the presence of female students from foreign countries in Germany.
Secreted extracellular vesicles (EVs) influence the tumor microenvironment and promote distal metastasis. Here we analyzed the involvement of melanoma-secreted EVs in lymph node pre-metastatic niche formation in murine models. We found that small EVs (sEVs) derived from metastatic melanoma cell lines were enriched in nerve growth factor (NGF) receptor (NGFR, p75NTR), spread through the lymphatic system and were taken up by lymphatic endothelial cells, reinforcing lymph node metastasis. Remarkably, sEVs enhanced lymphangiogenesis and tumor cell adhesion by inducing ERK kinase, nuclear factor (NF)-κB activation and intracellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1 expression in lymphatic endothelial cells. Importantly, ablation or inhibition of NGFR in sEVs reversed the lymphangiogenic phenotype, decreased lymph node metastasis and extended survival in pre-clinical models. Furthermore, NGFR expression was augmented in human lymph node metastases relative to that in matched primary tumors, and the frequency of NGFR+ metastatic melanoma cells in lymph nodes correlated with patient survival. In summary, we found that NGFR is secreted in melanoma-derived sEVs, reinforcing lymph node pre-metastatic niche formation and metastasis. ; we apologize to those authors whose work could not be cited due to size restrictions. We thank M. S. Soengas and the members of her laboratory for melanoma cells, primary melanocyte preparations and helpful discussions. We thank M. Detmar and S. Proulx for the mouse B16-F1R2 cell line. We are grateful to M. Yañez-Mo and M. Valés for antibodies against sEV markers. We thank D. Grela and A. Escobar from IESMAT for their support with the Zetasizer analysis. We thank G. Roncador, L. Maestre and J. L. Martinez Torrecuadrada for their help with the development and characterization of anti-NGFR antibodies and C. Villarroya Beltri for her help in flow cytometry analysis. This work was funded by the Starr Cancer Consortium (B.J.M., D.L. and H.P.), the US NIH (R01-CA169416), the Nancy C. and Daniel P. Paduano Foundation, the Children's Cancer and Blood Foundation (H.P. and D.L.), the Melanoma Research Alliance, the Feldstein Foundation, RETOS SAF2017-82924-R (AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER-UE), the Fundación Ramón Areces, the Fundación Bancaria 'la Caixa' (HR18-00256), ATRES-MEDIA AXA Foundation (CONSTANTES Y VITALES, una iniciativa de laSexta y Fundación AXA) and the Fundación Científica AECC (LABAE19027PEIN, GCB15152978SOEN-HP) (H.P.), the Malcolm Hewitt Wiener Foundation, the AHEPA Fifth District Cancer Research Foundation, the Hartwell Foundation and the Manning Foundation (D.L.). We are also grateful for the support of the Translational Network for the Clinical Application of Extracellular Vesicles (TeNTaCLES), RED2018-102411-T (AEI/10.13039/501100011033), the Ramón y Cajal Programme, the FERO Foundation, Comunidad of Madrid 2017-T2/BMD6026 (L.N.) and La Caixa Foundation (ID100010434, fellowship LCF/BQ/ES17/11600007) (A.H.-B.). The CNIO, certified as a Severo Ochoa Excellence Centre, is supported by the Spanish government through the ISCIII. ; No