ABOUT THE COVER
Circulating microvesicles (MVs) have emerged as having important (patho)physiological roles in cell-to-cell communication. In cancers, tumor-derived MVs can include information that is potentially oncogenic. In plasma of leukemia patients, circulating MVs were shown to carry leukemia specific fusion transcripts and gene expression analysis revealed that cargo of MVs derived from leukemia cells encloses oncogenic fusion transcripts and mRNA related to basic functions of leukemic cells. The cover image shows MVs isolated from K562 leukemia cell culture internalized in the cytoplasm of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) 1 hour after co-culture with MVs. K562 derived MVs were stained with red dye PHK26+, ßtubilin is depicted in green and nuclei are stained in blue. Co-culture experiments further showed that MVs released from leukemia cells enhance proliferation of MSCs. Please see the article by Milani et al. (beginning on page 683) for more information.