Issue Cover (January 2018)

Front cover: Sphingolipids, and particularly the versatile signalling molecule sphingosine‐1‐phosphate (S1P) are potent mediators regulating vascular functions such as endothelial barrier integrity. We analyzed changes of the sphingolipid metabolism after LPS injection as a model for septic encephalopathy and brain edema and found profound alterations both systemically with a drop in serum S1P as well as at the level of the blood‐brain barrier. Our findings point towards a therapeutic potential of drugs interfering with this pathway as novel approach for the detrimental overwhelming immune response in sepsis. Astrocytes (red, GFAP) in the mouse brain cortex (blue: DAPI‐labelled nuclei).Read the full article ‘Alteration of sphingolipid metabolism as a putative mechanism underlying LPS‐induced BBB disruption’ by R. Vutukuri, R. Brunkhorst, R.‐I. Kestner, L. Hansen, N. F. Bouzas, J. Pfeilschifter, K. Devraj and W. Pfeilschifter ( J. Neurochem . 2018, vol. 144(2), pp. 172–185) on doi: 10.1111/jnc.14236 Read the Editorial Highlight ‘Endotoxemia rocks sphingolipid metabolism at the blood–brain barrier’ on doi: 10.1111/jnc.14246