Italicizing content pane titles
This is untested but I would try implementing a template_preprocess_panels_pane():

function mytheme_preprocess_panels_pane(&amp;$vars) {
  $content = &amp;$vars['content'];

  $title = !empty($content-&gt;title) ? $content-&gt;title : '';
  $title = preg_replace("/\*\*(.*?)\*\*/", "&lt;b&gt;$1&lt;/b&gt;", $title);
  $title = preg_replace("/\*(.*?)\*/", "&lt;i&gt;$1&lt;/i&gt;", $title);

  $vars['title'] = $title;
}


Adapted from this answer, and would allow some simple markdown in the titles.