The contemporary demographic development of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a very active topic in academic, but also in wider political and public discourses, particularly in the context of increased depopulation trends. Distinctly negative processes in the natural change and net migration are the result of post-war and transitional circumstances, as well as the socio-economic status of the country. Demographic disparities conditioned by a complex social background (economic, social, political, cultural and environmental factors) are often the subject of geographic research in this area, however, few studies have resulted in a comprehensive demographic categorization of municipalities and cities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which would be the first step in detection precise causes of demographic regression. Demographic categorization of municipalities on the basis of as many available demographic indicators as possible is a useful instrument in planning, through which concrete revitalization measures can be created primarily aimed at reducing polarization effects in development and depopulation of continuously deprived regions. This study used demographic data from the last 2013 population census, as well as those from more recent publications of national and entity statistical agencies. Special focus is placed on the index of total population change, population density, vital index, ageing coefficient and share of highly educated population. These indicators were analysed from the aspect of regional disparities, whereby special categories of municipalities and cities were created for each of them, in relation to how favourable is local demographic situation. In the second phase, their multi-criteria data integration was carried out, which more clearly indicate the general level of demographic development of individual municipalities/cities.

This paper analyses the statistical parameters that give a comprehensive overview of the socio-demographic state of the border areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and it represents a novel attempt to examine the disparity and relationships between central and peripheral parts of national territory. The methodology is based on examining the differences between border and non-border municipalities/cities according to four groups of indicators, to obtain four indices: depopulation, natural change, ageing and education. Statistically significant differences were found primarily in the context of population age structure, and it can be concluded that the ageing process has affected bordering regions more than the rest of the country.

Stabilin-1 is a multifunctional scavenger receptor expressed on alternatively-activated macrophages. Stabilin-1 mediates phagocytosis of “unwanted-self” components, intracellular sorting, and endocytic clearance of extracellular ligands including SPARC that modulates breast cancer growth. The expression of stabilin-1 was found on tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) in mouse and human cancers including melanoma, lymphoma, glioblastoma, and pancreatic insulinoma. Despite its tumor-promoting role in mouse models of melanoma and lymphoma the expression and functional role of stabilin-1 in breast cancer was unknown. Here, we demonstrate that stabilin-1 is expressed on TAM in human breast cancer, and its expression is most pronounced on stage I disease. Using stabilin-1 knockout (ko) mice we show that stabilin-1 facilitates growth of mouse TS/A mammary adenocarcinoma. Endocytosis assay on stabilin-1 ko TAM demonstrated impaired clearance of stabilin-1 ligands including SPARC that was capable of inducing cell death in TS/A cells. Affymetrix microarray analysis on purified TAM and reporter assays in stabilin-1 expressing cell lines demonstrated no influence of stabilin-1 expression on intracellular signalling. Our results suggest stabilin-1 mediated silent clearance of extracellular tumor growth-inhibiting factors (e.g. SPARC) as a mechanism of stabilin-1 induced tumor growth. Silent clearance function of stabilin-1 makes it an attractive candidate for delivery of immunomodulatory anti-cancer therapeutic drugs to TAM.